Madoka Magica: The broken seal
by aliastheabnormal
Summary: Many years ago a great betrayal sparked a massive war. This war spread through the cosmos and led to the fall of the incubator race. The beings they once farmed for energy took their magic for themselves and created their own empire. Now a thousand years have passed and a new conflict has arisen born from the ashes of the Homun heresy.
1. Chapter 1: Destiny begins

**Chapter 1: Destiny begins**

 **Late night, Akihabara Japan, Planet Earth.**

In the skies of Akihabara a creature in an old fashioned pilot suit looks upon the streets below. Next to him three skeleton motifed mooks show up looking more like costumes for mooks in Power rangers than skeletons with gray bones in the helmet, chest, arms, and legs and purple suit alongside a purple officer's cap with a yellow diamond shaped eye with black thorns crossing the pupil.

One of the skeleton mooks reported. "Commander Gremlin, the target seems to have eluded us. What now?"

The creature or Gremlin responded with a smile. His exposed fangs gleamed from his orange scaly skin and his golden reptilian eyes with long pointy ears and a bald head with a single white ahoge responded. "Spread out. That fool from the hunter faction would never risk leaving this planet while we are here. After all with so many innocents walking around all we need to do is carry out one or two slaughters and they will come scurrying out. That's their weakness, their dedication to protecting these inferior beings." The minions spread out and Gremlin looks at a black colored egg shaped gem which he summons to his hand.

At that time a shadowed figure carries a sparkling rainbow crystal with him thru the dark alleyways.

… **...**

 **Mafuba apartment complex, next morning.**

That morning we see a human girl prepare breakfast for herself in a small one room apartment. A slender frame and pale skin with long black hair tied into low hanging twin tails that reach to her legs with pink ribbons, spiky hair that split into a four pointed star in front and striking red rounded eyes. Preparing a mountain of fried eggs with toast and caramel milk her room is full of random memorabilia from anime and manga of eras long past. Figurines of Precure and gunpla, DVD's of anime like Yuuki Yuuna, Symphogear, and Milky Holmes, tankobons of Jojo's bizarre adventure, Dragon ball and Dragon ball Z are just a few of the many things that clutter the tiny, cheap, apartment where the girl lives. After eating she puts on a red sleeveless one piece with a belt orange work gloves and orange thigh high leather boots and a red backpack then she exits the apartment.

There she is stopped by an elderly anthropomorphized tortoise woman neighbor with an apron and white hair in a large bun. "Oh Kaname-san good morning."

The girl smiled and responded. "How's it going grandma Chell? Is your husband still telling stories to the birds?"

"I'm afraid so Kaname-san. The homeland just isn't what it was before the war a thousand years ago. Akihabara used to be vibrant and full of life, now anyone with money or powers leaves and never comes back."

"Don't worry grandma! I'm not going anywhere even if I have magic!" The girl threw some punches in the air and then said. "I'll protect this town. After all, you took me in when I didn't remember anything three years ago. Anyways I better get to work."

"Indeed, good luck dearie." Said the elderly tortoise as the girl left then muttering to herself. "You can't fool me Honoka. You may not realize it but someday you will leave this town as well."

The young girl, Honoka Kaname is an oddity in the land of Akihabara and in current Japan in general. Found at the edge of town three years ago with no memories except her name she settled in the Mafuba apartment complex thanks to the Chell family and began taking odd jobs to pay for living expenses at her insistence. Unlike most people she has no desire to leave Japan which has seen better days due to mana poisoning and constant witch attacks centuries ago. In fact most modern Japanese nationals are the descendants of people too poor or stubborn to leave when the war started a thousand years ago that left the nation in ruins that never recovered.

As Honoka left she saw grandpa Chell another elderly anthro tortoise feeding some birds in the middle of a story. "You see a thousand years ago the evil alien race known as the incubators summoned the demon lord Homun right here in Japan to take over the universe. But Homun's power was so great that it enslaved the incubators and began to wage a campaign of destruction on the universe. Fortunately the goddess of magic Gretchen descended from the heavens and gave us mortals the gift of magic in order to fight the invaders alongside the five heroes. Together they drove Homun's forces off Earth and to the Incubators homeworld where Gretchen sacrificed her life to kill Homun saving the universe. But Japan was badly damaged from the fighting, its lands poisoned by darkness many were forced to leave to space since the other nations of earth refused to give refuge to millions of displaced people even to this day."

"Hey grandpa Chell!" Honoka yells out while waving her arms.

"Oh hello Honoka. How are you doing this morning!"

"Quite well actually. Don't you get tired of telling the same stuff to the birds?"

"No way! I used to be a teacher you know, traveled all over Japan with grandma and all. Even saw the ruined and cursed city of Mikitihara myself when I was younger."

"The ruined city of Mikitihara huh?" Mikitihara is famous for being a cursed ruin walled off by the government for generations. The nearby town of Kazimono was turned into a military fortress to make sure no one would poke around the place. Rumors abound that something big lies hidden in Mikitihara protected by the masterless familiars of Homun itself. "Anyways I gotta go now so see ya!"

Honoka leaves and as she runs at considerable speeds a good twenty miles per hour we see Akihabara. The otaku capital being in ruins, many buildings have been abandoned for decades if not flat out torn down. There is still a lot of its former culture left proof that both the humans and the non humans that remained in Japan refuse to let tradition die.

Homun didn't just cause a rampage on Earth. It caused chaos on many worlds and forced aliens to make contact with humanity. The United States and the Men in black tried to maintain the masquerade but they were powerless against the demon king the US military was devastated by the witches and the rest of the world fared worse. Even some idiots like the North Koreans tried to cut deals with Homun. Nowadays North Korea is a giant smoking cursed crater where warp entities randomly spawn to eat anyone who dares enter. And if you're curious Israel and Palestine are still at war with each other a thousand years into the future. Nowadays the Earth is a shell of its former glory. The polar ice caps rely on massive solar powered regulators that span their entire landmasses to prevent their meltdown. And the nations are kept in check by the IFS or Internal fleet systems and it's legions.

 **Pussy destroyer netcafe.**

Reaching and entering the netcafe Honoka is met by another human this one an old man with a big hooked nose, long beard, cap and thick glasses. The netcafe itself is a medium sized affair with a lot of cat imagery shelves full of numerous manga titles ready to read and tables with chairs next to the windows for costumers to sit and hang out.

"So you're finally here Honoka?" Said the old man. "Hurry up and get dressed. We're opening the netcafe soon."

"Sure thing boss." The girl answered as she went to the back to change. Putting on a orange shirt with yellow apron, blue long slacks and orange hat and went to man the counter as a typical quiet work day in a netcafe. Quiet which would be broken soon as a mysterious humanoid child appeared. Male in gender and seemingly younger than the 14 year old Honoka, with green spiky hair and wearing a green armor or bodysuit of sorts with balloon boots covered by a massive brown trenchcoat and equally long lime green scarf that nearly reached the ground. He also wore some strange visor device with triangular lenses that looked like a cross between a scouter and a pair of shades and oddly enough some metallic pieces in his cheeks.

The boy went to the counter and said. "A room please." And pulled out a sizable wad of cash shocking Honoka.

"Cash?!"

"Is there a problem?"

"No, it's just that cash is rare these days. We accept it, but nowadays most people use plastic or their cell phone payment apps."

"Sorry."

"Nevermind." Honoka commented as she gave the kid a key and told him. "Room 4 down the hall and to the left."

The boy grabs the key and stares at Honoka's face for a few brief moments. "Out of curiosity what is your name?"

"Honoka Kaname, why do you ask?"

Surprised the boy steps back before regaining his composure. "What a coincidence." He mutters to himself. "Must be a distant relative or something of her. There doesn't seem to be a Puella magi signature on her either." He leaves toward room 4 weirding out Honoka all the way.

As the day passed Honoka kept at her job minding her business a few more people came. It was a Monday so obviously it was going to be quiet at the morning hours. She is then met by a group of ten strange black hooded figures with white fox masks with round ruby red eyes and eerie smiles. They approach Honoka with one asking. "Have you seen a boy in a trench coat and scarf around here?"

Honoka looked with suspicion but asked. "Are you friends?"

The hooded figure responded. "You could say that. We really need to find him as soon as possible."

Another hooded figure stepped forward with a strange gem. It looked like a black and gray Faberge egg with a button on top the previous figure stepped back as he said. "Could you hold this for a minute?"

Honoka grabs the weird egg as an evil smile pops up from the entire hooded group and a flash of dark energy surrounds her which is promptly shattered by a bright light that destroys the gem utterly. The hooded figures freak out with one yelling out. "Crap what now?"

Oddly enough the one who gave the gem is completely calm merely saying. "As I expected the dark soul gem had no effect."

"What the hell are you doing Steve?" The other hooded figure asked. "This isn't part of the plan.

Steve replies with. "This girl has unusual magical powers. If she cannot be brought into the fold, she must die!" Steve takes out another egg and pushes the button. "Magirise, INFECTION!" And a black mist pours out of the egg covering Steve. Causing lightning to manifest inside the cloud and bursting transforming him into one of the skeleton mooks from yesterday with an electronic voice yelling out. "Infection, Skull raiser!" The other hooded mooks except the one who asked Steve nod and pull out identical gems, activating them and turning into the Skull raiser monsters generating hand held purple sickles with a flat circular top containing a slot for something, scaring off the clientele, and drawing the boss attention.

"What is going on?!" The boss yells out.

Steve answers. "It's simple we're going to kill you and wreck this place."

The boss snorts and snickers. "Oh really? Do you really think I hire a fourteen year old full time just because I like to violate child labor laws? Honoka, evict these bums!"

Steve laughs and points at the boss. "Really? We are the Cycles cult, fool. A mere girl from a bombed out ruin of a planet wont do a thing to us." Only to get punched in the face so hard by Honoka so hard that he flew into the air, spun around three times, landed into the ground with an audible thud, and his transformation broke off leaving all in silence.

"What just happened?" One of the Skull raisers asks while another one merely yells. "Kill her!" And then the goons go after Honoka brandishing their sickles with the exception of the untransformed one who just slinks off to the corner and tries to escape when he is caught by someone and dragged inside a door which closes.

The Raisers meanwhile try to strike Honoka down but to no avail. She simply dodges, blocks, or deflects all their strikes making fools of the deadly minions of an evil organization that terrorizes the stars.

"What the hell is going on?" One of the raisers ask in frustration.

"Glasses guy explain!" Another one demands of the boss.

The boss meanwhile laughs. "Fine, I'll tell you this is my bouncer Honoka Kaname! You see three years ago these old tortoises found her with no memories except her name in the outskirts of town. For some reason Honoka is super strong like a saiyan and knows some magic. And so we put her to use dealing with thugs and miscreants. BWAHAHAHAHAHAA!"

The Raisers split up five on five to take Honoka and the boss getting serious in their attacks and actually doing better. The Raisers attacking Honoka strike her with their scythes forcing her back with one flash stepping behind her and kicking her in the back and another uppercutting her in the gut. Meanwhile the boss is being assaulted by superior numbers he is fighting back using magic to strengthen his body enough to make sure the Raisers scythes don't rip him to pieces.

"How do you like that loser?" One of the assaulters yelled as he struck the boss who only smiled back as his arms glowed and told him.

"Fool..." And launched a shockwave that threw off the five mooks into the air surprising the others. Honoka took advantage to disarm one of them by striking its sickle holding arm and grabbing it and using it to strike down the enemy with several ferocious swipes. The Raiser behind her also moved in for the kill but Honoka countered with a high spin kick which disarmed her foe and staggered him and a brutal tackle to the floor. The final three drop their scythes and try to summon something else but are taken down swiftly as well while the five mooks fighting the boss land on the floor.

"Well that's over and done with." Boss comments.

"Indeed." The boy in the trenchcoat comments with a sly smile while carrying a dead hooded figure, tossing him into the ground nonchalantly into the ground. Both Honoka and the boss freak out at the sight while the trenchcoat boy remains indifferent. "Well I don't see why you're so freaked out. Once these guys regain consciousnesses they are gonna call for help and you two are pretty much screwed. You really have no idea who you're dealing with do you?"

The boss angrily yelled out. "They're just a bunch of toku cosplayers aren't they?"

"Nope, these people are Skull raisers, minions of the Cycles cult. An organization that seeks to conquer the universe thru the use of forbidden magic." The boy commented as he went closer to Honoka who went on the defensive throwing a rapid punch faster than the eye could see which he effortlessly caught creating a shockwave that spread thru the store. "You managed to defeat those Raisers because they were weak. Dark soul gems do empower their users, but its only proportional to their talents. Most of the time the best they can do is create what you see. A mere superpowered thug that a trained fighter or someone with incredible potential like you Honoka can tear apart with little problem. But there are those who rise above their station and become commanders, gaining unique forms and powers. Some don't even need to transform to use their powers. By the way Honoka, throwing at a stranger? You may have your mother's face but you definitively lack her temper."

After a brief moment of pause Honoka and Boss scream in shock together at the revelation.

"Mother?! Honoka has a mother?! Since when?!" The boss yells out in utter disbelief.

"Trust me i'm as shocked as you are. I didn't think she swung that way. Maybe she used invitro or something..."

Unbeknownst to them one of the Raisers had recovered and was already plotting his next move. Readying a dark soul gem and eyeing Honoka's boss with evil intent.

"Anyways who are you? And what are you talking about?" Boss asked.

"Who am I? Fu, fu, fu..." The trenchcoat boy chuckles as he covers his face his his right hand.

Prompting Honoka to remark. "Oh crap, chuuni alert."

Suddenly the screen turns black and a fingersnap is heard as a spotlight is shone at a brick wall showing a wanted poster with his face and the symbols of the Cycles cult the purple diamond shaped eye and a bounty of 5.7 million moolah, the current galactic currency which is basically 5.7 million dollars which quickly pans to the boy who is posing, showing his back, with his scarf flowing in the wind and his arms in an armfold yet showing of his left hand to reveal a Fleming's razor pose and giving off a smug grin while giving off his name. "Shall we begin the experiment? Green Hack!" And the scene switches to a background of outer space which drops to the inside of a space colony and a cityscape where Green hack jumps into a clock tower on the right and presses himself into a wall in an armfold with his scarf flowing in the wind yelling. "Irregular hunter guild!"

Everything returned to normal just as suddenly as the props appeared leaving a confused Honoka to comment. "How did you do that?!" At that time the Raiser sprung into action ramming a Dark soul gem into Boss' back causing an explosion of energy.

"Dammit!" Green hack yells out causing him to fire two energy blasts one at the Raiser which swiftly kills him and one at Boss which is deflected by the aura.

"What are you doing?!" Honoka asks, upset at the fact that Green would kill her boss. Getting in between the two when Boss transforms into a Skull raiser and attacks Honoka with a sickle. Green yanks her off and paralyzes Boss with levitation and punches him in the gut causing him to fly off and crash into a wall then he grabs Honoka by the right arm and leaves the store much to the shock of nearby civilians charging a large energy blast firing it into the store blowing it up shocking the civilians and causing them to flee in a panic. Green jumps into the sky with Honoka and lands on the rooftops making their getaway along them until diving into the back alleys.

… **...**

 **The back alleys of Akihabara**

The back alleys of Akihabara. A dark, dreary dumping ground full of disheveled and abandoned buildings and mounds of old garbage everywhere. Honoka and Green finally stop in the middle of this creepy dark place complete with random homeless bums.

"What did you do?!" Honoka snaps at Green hack pissed at the fact that the trenchcoat boy murdered her boss and blew up her place of employment without a care in the world.

"You really need to chill Honoka. That wasn't your boss anymore. Once you're infected with a Dark soul gem you become one of her minions forever." Green hack replied with utter nonchalance. "Besides I'm sure he's still alive. Basic Skull raisers can survive a simple building exploding in their face no problem."

"There's more of them?" Honoka remarks in shock.

"Yeah, Raisers are just your basic grunts which anyone who is a halfway decent fighter can take on. There's the elite Skull masters who are a challenge, then there's the specialized units who can curbstomp mere mortals with ease, the commanders who have their own monster forms and are one man armies, and finally the four riders who are in charge of the Cycles cult whose powers can rearrange the landscape and whose leader has blown up planets."

Honoka just looks on in utter horror at what she has heard.

"But don't worry i'm gonna go beat them up! Or I could but I kinda have a problem." Green blurts out as he shows a green smart phone like device with a vertical flowing lime green stripe in its middle and three buttons in its lower area one circle button in the center and two arrow ones next to it. Pierced by a strange black spike not unlike a piece of an elephant's tusk. Although seemingly normal at first glance to Honoka and Green Hack who both have powerful magical abilities whether natural or trained respectively could tell there is something utterly wrong with it.

"As cliched as this sounds. That thing reeks of the dark side of the force." The girl points at the device. "There's no way that's a driver."

"Yep, this is a driver. Long, long ago the incubators used to create magical girls or as we call them now Puella Magi to harvest their energy to prolong the heat death of the universe or so they claim. They basically removed their souls from their bodies and placed them into soul gems artificially awakening their magical potential. The problem is that such a method corrupted the soul since it transmuted it from metaphysical space into the material realm creating an imperfect lich that would inevitably mutate into a monster. Drivers are reibai made methods to replicate and improve upon the system used by the incubators and mass produce it. In fact drivers are now standard issue military hardware across the galaxy."

"This is a driver?" Honoka looks on in disbelief.

"Sadly now it's been cursed and it doesn't work. Cursed by Aviator Gremlin one of the Cycles cult's commanders. His cursed tacks have the power to disable all technology including magical ones which means I can't transform or call for help and the ship I use has been disabled as well."

At that time another group of Raisers in hoods are scouring the area and have just showed up in the street in front of them. Before the Raisers realize it Green Hack preemptively shoots them dead causing a large magical explosion that consumes the back street.

Honoka annoyed at the situation replies "Okay Vegeta do you really have to murder every guy with a hood in Akihabara?"

"That was basically the idea before I met you." Hack bluntly answers.

"Why couldn't you be a pretty girl with long dark hair? At least it would be easier on the eyes." Honoka complains as she face palms.

"Now I know you're her kid."

"Hey what's that noise about?" Another voice rang out.

"I don't know but it came from where Matt's unit was investigating. We better check it out."

Hack smiled as he prepared another blast. "Oh good, more baby seals." When he is pulled away by Honoka and dragged away at top speed.

… **...**

 **Honoka Kaname's apartment**

The unlikely duo is inside Honoka apartment as Honoka is dressing down Green Hack and his killing spree.

"Look I don't know where you came from but around here killing people and destroying property is illegal and immoral. You could go to jail because of your actions."

Hack meanwhile shows little concern and basically tells her compatriot. "Those "people" are Raisers. A bunch of criminals in goofy costumes. It's perfectly alright to murder them in increasingly gruesome and creative ways for the amusement of the public."

Honoka freaks out grabs Green, lifts him up from his chair and starts shaking him so roughly that he drops both his busted driver and a strange large crystal from his coat's pockets. Large enough to fit in one persons palm and with an odd pinkish rainbow hue. Drawn to it Honoka casually tosses Green across the room with him landing in a pile of old magazines. Grabbing the crystal and then the driver a massive power surge rockets across the room flooding the apartment and could be seen from outside. Gaining the attention of the Raisers and their commander a smiling orange skinned gremlin. Inside the apartment the crystal and driver are both transforming. The driver is having its tack disintegrated and restored with its colors changed to red and orange and gaining a logo in its back of a red card with an orange tear shaped gem with a v-fin and the crystal transformed into a card.

"What is this? Hey Vegeta get up!"

Green Hack gets up looking at one of the magazines realizing the contents. "Whoa, dark haired beauties unleashed. You really have the same tastes as your mother."

"Could you stop staring at my stash and come over here! Something happened to your driver."

Annoyed Green Hack got up and went back to the table where Honoka was "You know, you should do a better job at hiding your porn stash. Now what happened?" Looking at the transformed items he asks. "Whoa what happened?"

"That's what I like to know I touched them and they transformed."

Grabbing the driver and giving it a look see he mentions. "At least its working again." As the device boots up and shows its main screen showing several apps including it's transformation, cell phone, camera, and internet apps among others. Green hack touches the transformation app only for a message saying access denied to show up.

"Hey why isn't it working?" Honoka asked with concern.

"It seems the driver was reformatted. The transformation function of a driver only work with the person who first activates it as a security precaution. The driver and the user are then linked for life. You somehow managed to restore my driver and in the process resetted the security protocols so it would work for you."

"This is impossible."

"Quite so, magic of this magnitude is of a reality warping scale. Something that hasn't been seen in this universe in one thousand years." Green looks at the cards and is even more surprised noticing the design and figures shown in the card. "And a gold transformation card featuring Madoka Kaname."

"Kaname, that girl kinda looks like me. And has the last name as me."

Green sighs in exasperation and with some moments of reluctance explains to Honoka. "That pink haired girl. Madoka Kaname. Is your mother when she was alive."

Honoka was hit hard by the revelation. She never once gave much thought about her past. Yet now she is being told that her mother was a magician and that she died. All she could do is ask. "Did you know her?"

"No, but I do know her mentor Mami Tomoe and some of her comrades from the war who told me the stories about her."

"What was she like?"

"Mami-san said she was the greatest magician the universe had ever seen. And a kind and noble friend who sacrificed herself to help many people." Green became more somber for this next part "But she was betrayed. A fellow magician, a friend, a teammate, betrayed Madoka and murdered her. Her name was Homun."

Honoka was shocked at the revelation. "Homun?! The demon lord Homun?! I never heard of such a thing!"

"Of course the truth was censored after the war to protect humanity. If word got out that the demon lord Homun was human it would have disastrous for Earth and its attempts to enter the Galactic alliance. So we survivors of the war swore to take the truth to the grave giving a falsified account to the people to remember. Mami-san, Sayaka, Kyoko, Nagisa, and my onee-chan Kagami became known as the five heroes alongside the Goddess Gretchen who saved and later united the universe."

"By the way, Who's Homura?"

Green annoyed merely muttered. "Some nobody who died submitting at the hands of the demon lord. Probably enjoyed it too. Some zombies get sexually satisfied while they are being cleaved in the head with a rusty ax while they are on their knees swearing their loyalty to an avatar of Slaneesh." Finishing under his breath where no one could here. "Little bitch should have gotten the Akio treatment too before she died. Would have been glorious."

"Still that Homura's hair looks like mine. Did she have relatives or something?"

"Homura was an orphan and her remaining distant relatives were all hunted down and killed in retaliation by the Japanese populace after the war similar to how the Israeli government hunted down Nazi remnants after World war II. Homura's body was destroyed so I doubt they could find a DNA sample of her to clone. I'm going to be honest with you, I have no idea who your father is. Or how it's even possible since Madoka was GAY and apparently had a girlfriend before Homun killed them. And Madoka Kaname is a lot of things but unfaithful to her spouse is not one of them."

An explosion rocks the room and screeching noises could be heard from outside. That's when Grandma Chell opened the apartment door. Honoka goes to greet her parental figure who is terrified. "Honoka be careful! They have returned!" And then another set of explosions rocks the entire building.

"Who?" Honoka asks.

"The Cycles cult. Just like three years ago."

"Three years ago?"

Grandma Chell lowers her head in sadness as she tells her tale. "It was late at night three years ago. Me and darling were walking together in the outskirts of town when we noticed a group of people in hoods and white masks dumping a bag in a ditch and running away. We went to look at the bag and saw a symbol, a purple diamond shaped eye. The symbol of the Cycles cult. And inside that bag was you, with no memories of your past.

Grandma Chell hugs Honoka when she is shot in the back by someone. The force powerful enough to shatter Grandma Chell's shell and fry her innards. Grandma Chell looks at Honoka one last time and smiles before dying in her arms. She then goes on to see the shooter. Boss himself, still alive, surrounded by Raisers and carrying a hand mounted quad barreled blaster cannon, and looking completely different from before with purple veins on his forehead and an evil looking expression. One of the Raisers was carrying another corpse, another elderly tortoise this one brutally maimed.

"G... Grandpa!" Honoka looks on in horror as the Raiser drops the body of Grandpa Chell on the floor. "Why Boss? Why?" To which the boss would only look on with a blank stare.

Suddenly grabbed by Green Hack who merely says the word "Kuuenbu" causing him to briefly tense up and rocket outside in a burst of green energy running of the walls before jumping off the ledges and into the ground and being followed by Boss and the others who would follow suit. Boss turning into a Raiser for good measure. And to top it off two starfighters appear atop the Mafuba apartments with purple eye emblems. Gray and purple in coloring and fairly small and nimble with a long body and massive cone shaped wings with eight shaped pods with twin guns each. The pods open and fire energy bombs which level the entire building.

Honoka looked on in horror at the destruction and panic while Green could only curse in frustration. "Shit! Gremlin managed to get Pie bombers here! What the hell is the Japanese IFS doing?! At this rate the city will be destroyed!"

"The IFS wont be coming in time Vegeta." Honoka mentions in despair.

Incredulous Green shakes Honoka. "What do you mean the IFS wont come?! Even if the drivers rescue beacon is activated it will take time for the guild to form a rescue party."

"The Japanese government and the IFS legion headquarters in Kazimono have been at odds lately. They wouldn't send troops outside their borders for a small scale invasion." Oddly enough a group of blaster cannons have started to fire back at the Pies which are being successfully chased off and a number of heavily armed black vans with a slice of pizza for a logo are seen scrambling on the streets. "(Phew!) It's the Hut's. Looks like they started to defend their turf."

"They wont have a chance against Gremlin. We have to find him and kill him."

"You've gotta be kidding me. You're still going on with that crap? Why should I get involved in this mess?"

Green is shocked at this turn of events screaming out. "Because you're the daughter of Madoka Kaname! It's your duty to stop this! You owe this town, this planet, the human race that much! What about those turtle anim who died? What about that Boss guy? You can transform into a magical girl with that driver and stop Gremlin now that I can't! You were born to make history!"

Honoka backed away and upset remarked. "Really, you must have gotten beaten up at school a lot haven't you?"

Green angrily replied. "Shut up! Now I have power!"

"Not anymore asshole!" Honoka happily mentioned to which Green simply left running. Alone in the chaos Honoka simply thinks to herself. "Well at least i'm finally rid of him." Looks around her seeing the destruction and asks. "But now what?"

Meanwhile some distance away Green is still running while crying. "Waaah! She called me an asshole!"

… **...**

 **The streets of Akihabara**

Green Hack stopped running in the midst of the chaos when he sees the fighting between the Hut clan and the Cycles cult. The Hut clan is basically a galaxy wide mob why is it in Akihibara is beyond him but I guess that they are the reason why Honoka is a bouncer. After all they are able to use their connections to build bootleg drivers as powerful as the real deal. Although couldn't mass produce them like the guild or IFS. At that time he is met by the space suit wearing commander who is facing seven muscled mobsters in suits with high powered cannons who started firing at him. Gremlin generated a foot long tack in each hand and swung them around deflecting all the shots while the tacks broke and the shards flew off skewered the cannons and blew them up. And with a smile outstretched his arms and launched tacks skewering their heads.

He looked at grin with a smile on his face and then a massive group of Raisers surrounded the duo. "Well, well, well, how is the curse I put on your driver and ship dealing with you?"

Green Hack looked pissed but soon recovered. "Fine Gremlin, was it worth sacrificing Rhino as a distraction?"

"Raketen Rhino failed one too many times already. Dark Messiah felt it was time for the next generation to take command. I was born and raised on this world you know. Good old mother Russia. For centuries my people toiled under the Soviet regime. We starved while the premier fought over a dying rock with the Americans but then Raketen came along. He tried to start a revolution but he didn't realize that Russians are too stupid to fend for themselves." Gremlin chuckled.

Pietr Romanov, also known as Aviator Gremlin. A rising star in the Cycles cult at 18 years of age. He spent his childhood on the streets of Stalingrad. Even thought America and Russia have long fallen into irrelevancy with the advent of space travel. Putin and his successors never did give up their dreams of reviving the Soviet Union, creating a new communist global empire, and destroying the United states. Even while being well aware that there are little girls that could easily crush their ambitions on a whim or the fleets of world glassing space craft above their heads. And the people lived in squalor. Pietr himself dreamed of going into space and leaving Earth eventually falling into a proxy rebellion led by Raketen Rhino one of Cycles cult's commanders. Pietr was damn good at his good, sadly Rhino wasn't. And that's being nice. The Neo KGB eventually caught on and destroyed the rebellion and would have done the same to Pietr if he didn't discover his power. The ability to disable and destroy technology with his cursed tacks. With this he managed to escape and using Rhino as a distraction/meat shield he stole his spaceship and left Earth. Impressed with his actions and power the four riders granted him the position of commander becoming Aviator Gremlin.

"Boy I was given the order to kill you. Dark Messiah feels that you have been a thorn in her side for far too long."

"I don't get it why doesn't she target the five heroes?"

"The five heroes never stood a chance against Homun on their own." Gremlin pulled out a dark soul gem this one with golden accents and pressed the button on the top. "They only won because of this. Magirise!" Then a gray egg shaped crystal just like a soul gem covers Gremlin which is flooded with a black mist and lightning with a dark rock musical accompaniment.

The gem cracks leaking the dark mist which then explodes revealing Aviator Gremlin's monster form. A red and white mechanical man with a propeller plane motif. Having long slim arms and legs, his arms in particular touching the ground and being huge, similar to wings with massive round hands and large claws for fingers. His shoulders are missile pods and his torso is the nose of a plane with a propeller. The purple eye of the Cycles cult was in the stomach and oddly enough a round white helmet similar to an astronaut with two antenna. He carried missiles in his arms and his skinny legs looked like the rear and tail of a plane. The back was a giant thruster which lit up as he flew up into the sky while spreading out his arms outward like a plane.

 **Scourge of the modern industrial economic complex**

 **Cycles cult commander**

 **Category 4 mahou driver**

 **Aviator Gremlin**

"Now, DIE!" And with that order Gremlin's Raiser minions swoop in on Green Hack who prepares to fight.

… **...**

At that time Honoka went back to the ruins of the Pussy destroyer netcafe and just stood there staring at the destruction while the sound of explosions and starfighter engines could be heard in the distance leveling Akihabara. Looking defeated Honoka merely stood there thinking about the events of the day and how she is basically alone in the world now. She took out the card featuring Madoka Kaname and wondered what her mother was like. And if she could have stopped all of this madness.

And then the driver she kept began ringing. Honoka picked it up and saw that the screen said anonymous. Honoka was about to reject the call when the driver activated and began floating in midair freaking out Honoka.

"You must be Kaname-san." The voice of a young woman came from the driver. "It feels strange saying that name after all this years. I may be sounding disrespectful but can I call you Kaname-chan? To tell you apart from your mother."

"You knew my mother?! And no I don't really mind. Look you don't have to use honorifics its so old fashioned."

"You think so too Kaname-chan. Sorry, I just can't. I just can't."

"You just like being polite?"

"Sure, let's go with that... Anyways I did know your mother. I was somewhat of her mentor of sorts at being a magician. I still remember when we first met. I was fighting a witch all alone and I would have been killed if she didn't save me. The two of us joined forces to fight Walpurgisnacht a super witch of long ago. Those times feel like they were another lifetime now though. Why didn't you transform I wonder? Your mother would have done so without hesitation."

"Why should I? This whole thing is crazy! Grandpa, grandma, boss. They're all dead. That Green Hack guy is an evil sociopath. And you expect me to believe i'm the daughter of this master magician who can warp reality on a whim?"

"The proof is in the pudding wouldn't you agree?" Honoka looks at the driver and the cards and remembers that they were very different previously pouting in annoyance. "Frankly i'm glad you're more restrained than Kaname-san. Your mother would recklessly throw herself at a situation without thinking things thru. And she would sacrifice herself for people who in the end didn't deserve it." A beeping noise is heard from the driver. "It seems that enemies are reaching your position." Honoka prepares to flee when the driver gets on her face. "Wait! There's one last thing I have to say. Your mother had the power to change the fabric of reality. She made it possible once for Puella Magi to use their magic without becoming witches."

Hearing that shocked Honoka as she grabbed the driver. "That can't be! You would need to rewrite reality itself to do so. Magical power akin to a god, like Gret... My mother... Was the goddess Gretchen?"

"Yes Kaname-chan and it's clear you have inherited her divine powers somehow. You could even reverse the effect of the dark soul gems. Even thought I don't know how."

Right then and there a group of Raisers appeared ready to fight. Honoka looked at then and asked. "So, how do you fight them?" When five of the six cards turned into balls of light and flew into the driver and the Madoka Kaname card stayed hovering atop the driver. The driver then poured a blast of energy into the card causing it to glow red and the sound of drums began to ring.

Honoka grabs the card and says. "This really sounds like a deal with the devil, miss voice."

The voice merely remarks. "True, but you can either run, die, or fight. Right now you lost everything and if the universe finds out the truth you are dead. The inquisition and the Cycles cult will hunt you down no matter where you go. This IS a deal with the devil Kaname-chan. You will spend a lifetime fighting monsters. You will forsake anything resembling happiness and normalcy. You will risk dying like an animal at any given moment. And it's the best damn deal you're going to get."

Grabbing the card with her left hand Honoka's body except her head is enveloped with binary code. Countless zeroes, ones, and occasionally some twos and tosses it. "Into the drive!" The card explodes into numerous beams of light which bombard Honoka transforming her into an armored warrior. Red and orange armored in coloration and in many ways a mechanical non frilly version of Madoka Kaname's magical girl costume with several changes. Being more of a bodysuit and armor than a costume with a red helmet with its hair sculpted into long twintails like her civilian form, an orange visor, and two large orange hair clips taking the place of the ribbons. Her armor is all red with an orange tear shaped crystal in the center and round shoulder pads with the left one having a yellow circular emblem with a white Y inside and a pair of stylized wings with the right pad having an orange gem. The gloves undersides are orange with the upper armor being red with an orange tear shaped crystal on the hands. And the same with the boots. The driver itself vanishes and another burst of energy erupts from Honoka.

Something inside the armor suddenly shouted. "Red card! The card changing hero!" And a techno beat rang out from the armor.

"What just happened?" Honoka blurted out in a deadpan tone.

 _It is the year 1000 PCE. For more than a hundred centuries The Immortals have sat in the golden thrones of Center. They are the masters of mankind and countless other races by the will of the gods, and masters of a million worlds by the might of their inexhaustible armies. Living carcasses cursed by powers from the dark age of magic from countless lives have been lost to end. In a war so monstrous and far reaching that entire populations are silenced out of fear of a resurgence of such events._

 _Yet even in this age war is a constant. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon infested miasma of the warp. Vast armies give battle in uncounted worlds. Greatest among these soldiers are the legionnaire space marines, super warriors enhanced by the incubators former technology. Their comrades in arms are legion: The Internal fleet systems armed forces and countless planetary defense forces, the ever vigilant inquisition, and the tech masters of the mechanocracy to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants, and worse._

 _To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget hope and miracles, for they have been spurned in the pursuit of selfish desire. Forget the promise of forgiveness and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace among the stars, No happy ending for magical girls, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods._

 **To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: The Homun heresy

**The ruined streets of Akihabara**

The time, a thousand years into the future. The place, the ruins of the pussy destroyer netcafe. Honoka Kaname is facing off against a group of Skull Raisers, minions of the Cycles Cult seeking blood. How will our heroine survive?

"What just happened?" Honoka blurted out in a deadpan tone. "Seriously? Am I like Iron man or something now? Because this isn't what I imagined when I transformed. Jarvis explain."

"Who is Jarvis?" The voice of a woman blurted out from within the armor. "Kaname-chan, you may be a literal demigoddess. But I am still your senpai and I expect some sempai dignity." The Raisers meanwhile charge towards Honoka who easily dodges and counters every move while holding a conversation with the voice.

"So does this thing get uni-beams or something?" Honoka asks while separating one Raiser from the pack and punching him senselessly before finishing with an uppercut.

"This isn't an Iron man armor. Its... Um... What is this stuff made of anyways?" The voice asks while Honoka kicks away several Raisers. Another summons one of their arm cannons and fires it in auto fire. Honoka takes all the shots and emerges unscathed. Leaving the Raiser to crap his pants.

"Summon the Pies! Bomb this bitch back to the stone age!" The panicked Raiser yelled out as the mooks who are still conscious ran leaving the downed ones to die.

"Well I got to admit. This armor is pretty good at tanking bullets." And then Honoka gets shanked from behind by a Raiser with a sickle. Whose weapon breaks apart in half unable to penetrate the armor.

"What are you?!" The horrified Raiser asked Honoka. Who then noticed the Pie bombers closing in and readying their bomb bays. Sensing an opportunity the Raiser tackles Honoka and with a crazed laugh yells. "You may defeat me but you will never defeat our master!" The ten bombers launch their ordinance and level the entire city block vaporizing the corpses of the fallen Raisers and leveling everyone and everything else unlucky enough to be caught in blast with ordinance so powerful it can turn concrete and steel into ash.

All except one. As Honoka leapt hundreds upon hundreds of feet into the air and straight into the bombers stopping in midair. "Really, how could you not know about Jarvis, Jarvis? You know Tony Starks A.I. From Iron Man. I mean aren't you supposed to be an A.I. or something?" The bombers begin to shoot at Honoka relentlessly with their blaster cannons only for it to have no effect.

"That is absurd Kaname-chan!" The voice yelled clearly offended at the thought.

"But it's been a thousand years. Anyone from that era should be long dead."

"Well I admit you have a point there. Most mortal species would be dead after a millennium of standard galactic time. But I can assure you I am very much a survivor of the Homun heresy that began the Post Cycles calendar era. By the way shouldn't you be doing something about these guys shooting a you?"

"Oh yeah, I should. The thing is i'm not really feeling the whole getting shot by basically 40 starfighter caliber laser cannons all at once." Then Honoka gets floored by a salvo of rockets fired from the Pie bombers underside mounted missile launchers. Which as the smoke clears reveal they had no effect either. The Pie bombers upon seeing this all turned tail and flew back into the atmosphere while Honoka looked on silence trying to process the scenario. "What just happened? I thought we were fighting?"

… **...**

 _It is the year 1000 PCE. For more than a hundred centuries The Immortals have sat in the golden thrones of Center. They are the masters of mankind and countless other races by the will of the gods, and masters of a million worlds by the might of their inexhaustible armies. Living carcasses cursed by powers from the dark age of magic from countless lives have been lost to end. In a war so monstrous and far reaching that entire populations are silenced out of fear of a resurgence of such events._

 _Yet even in this age war is a constant. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon infested miasma of the warp. Vast armies give battle in uncounted worlds. Greatest among these soldiers are the legionnaire space marines, super warriors enhanced by the incubators former technology. Their comrades in arms are legion: The Internal fleet systems armed forces and countless planetary defense forces, the ever vigilant inquisition, and the tech masters of the mechanocracy to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants, and worse._

 _To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget hope and miracles, for they have been spurned in the pursuit of selfish desire. Forget the promise of forgiveness and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace among the stars, No happy ending for magical girls, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods._

… **...**

 **Chapter 2: The Homun heresy**

Honoka is still in the air looking at the destruction. She takes a deep breath and says. "Well now to change back and pretend this never happened."

The woman's voice in the armor screams in shock and asks. "You're still at it?!"

"Of course, aside from saving Boss this whole mess really isn't my problem."

"Well too bad because if you want to save this boss guy you need to do as I say."

"You're kidding."

"I'm not Kaname-chan. Tell me what do you know about using magic?" Honoka stood still for several moments unable to answer the question while the voice smugly told her. "I thought so. This isn't Power Rangers where a twelve year old can suddenly browbeat kaiju twice his size by simply slapping a key into a brace, yelling shift into turbo, and then turning the key." Honoka looks at the armor funny who after a moment notices the hypocrisy of the comment considering their situation. "Okay, I admit that didn't came out right. Anyways I need you to save a scientist of mine that wound up on Earth. His name is Tsurugi Ichijin. Here's his picture." The voice shows Honoka a hologram showing Green Hack's face giving the girl such a surprise that the helmet separates and retracts inside turning into particles of data that disperse into the air. "You got to be kidding?! That's a scientist?! But he's a murderous asshole!"

"True, Ichijin-san is as UNBEREABLE asshole. But he is an useful asshole. So I need him for my plans to succeed."

"Seriously Jarvis what would an AI need with a mad scientist? Are you really Ultron or something?

The voiced brutally exasperated at Honoka's attitude sighs and pulls out a hologram with a map showing several icons. "No, I seek the power to save the universe. Ichijin-san is located there. Save him and you will be rewarded."

Incredulous of the situation Honoka asked how. To which Mami showed a large pair of breasts which instantly caught the girl's attention. "You like these don't you? If you help Ichijin-san i'll let you fondle them."

Angry, Honoka relents and begins to fly to the location shown on the map. "Still I wonder how this map works?"

… **...**

 **The less ruined streets of Akihabara**

Back to the battle between Green Hack or Tsurugi Ichijin and Aviator Gremlin. Hack is fighting off Gremlin's Raiser lackeys as well even when they are all ganging up on him. With one of them even commenting on it.

"Dammit, why is this thing so hard to kill?!" Before Tsurugi punches him in the gut tossing him a good distance away.

"An excellent question with a simple answer." The tiny one answers. "My power levels even without transforming, are bigger." Tsurugi then somehow summons an RPG stat sheet for all to see full of very high numbers and goes into a theatrical rant. "Funny thing is, train long and hard enough and you're basically untouchable. But you don't you have to worry, because you don't have to wonder where your god is. He's right here!" Tsurugi then goes quiet and somber. "And he's fresh out of mercy." Only to get hit a speeding truck controlled by a cursed tack into a storefront which is set to explode by Gremlin.

Gremlin goes into an evil laugh as the flames consume the building. "Despair for the conceited Ichijin. Or should I say, death?" And laughs like a madman.

Tsurugi then rises from the flames. His trenchcoat completely destroyed by the explosion and flames revealing the green armor and lime green bodysuit but the scarf somehow survived intact merely being singed in some places. Gremlin readies his shoulder mounted weapon pods and fires more cursed tacks which are blocked by a round green energy shield which violently cracks.

"Interesting." An angry Gremlin scowls at the revelation. "While it is true that purely magical defenses can block my curse." As Gremlin speaks six missiles. Three in each underarm lock and load, taking aim at Tsurugi. "The cursed tacks aren't my only weapon. Red scourge!" And fires the six missiles which smash thru the defenses knocking Tsurugi into the floor. As he tries to recover Gremlin dives in landing and stomping both his arms making sure he cant escape. "I honestly can't understand what is so hard here? Well I guess that's what happens when you send a magical girl to do a man's job all these years. Wouldn't you agree Green Hack?" Gremlin chuckles as he looks down at his victim only get spat on.

"You understand nothing." Tsurugi bites back in a defiant tone.

"Cute." Gremlin mutters back annoyed as he prepares to fire on Tsurugi when he is smashed by a truck. It being pulled telekinetically behind Gremlin and mashing him into the ground.

Tsurugi gets up and boasts. "I'm the greatest genius in the universe! What made you think a mere pawn could checkmate a godslayer?! Now time for you to die!"

And in the middle of the boasting Honoka flies in and lands with a bit of difficulty next to Tsurugi. "So there you are Vegeta. Jarvis told me to find you."

Tsurugi practically throwing a tantrum responds with. "But im trying to kill the prick who wrecked my ship here!" And ends up double taking asking. "Wait, Honoka? What happened? And who is Jarvis?"

And the Gremlin gets out of the truck pissed as all hell Honoka looks at the plane shaped monster and comments. "That must be Aviator Gremlin."

"Indeed, I am Aviator Gremlin. I see my reputation precedes me. It truly is great to be recognized."

"Actually I just guessed because you look like a giant old timey plane straight from a war museum turned into a monster of the week."

"Ha! I am more than a mere monster of the week." Gremlin boasts as he lands on the ground. Honoka moving towards him while being unaware of this fact. "This temple of a body was given to me by Dark Messiah. The ruler of the Cycles cult. And the ruler. of. THE. UNIVERSE!" And thus Gremlin gets a right hook in the face for his carelessness landing him on the ground.

"Not so tough now are ya?" Honoka asks the fallen Gremlin who angrily fires off a salvo of tacks only for the girl to flash step away and appear behind him.

"What the hell is going on?" Gremlin asks in an incredulous voice.

"Beats me." And kicks the gremlin straight into their forty feet up then kicks him again into a Raiser who was just getting up.

Clapping her hands once Honoka ignites several sparks of flames and summons a massive red claymore into her left hand which she easily handles. Four feet long. Almost as long as her with a blade that is more like a Japanese katana or a giant fang than a dual edge blade that would be typical of the weapon and a large pommel with a circle shaped console and two tips on each side. The suit itself makes an announcement alongside the sword yelling "Summon, God Eater!" And the sword itself shone with binary code, flames, and sparks surrounding it for a while before stabilizing.

Gremlin wastes no time in firing more curses which are countered by Honoka grabbing her new sword and focusing as the blade begins to glow. And with a mighty swing a wave of energy is launched that consumes all of the curses forcing Gremlin to fly up and the unlucky Raiser caught in the middle to get vaporized in the blast. Gremlin is utterly awed as the wave goes on to pulverize the surrounding area before subsiding a good three hundred feet behind him. "Sweet merciful Putin! What kinds of winter do they have in Japan?"

A random Raiser asked. "Did you just invoke Putin? Because I thought you weren't a Putinist."

After composing himself Gremlin quickly goes on the defensive. "Of course i'm not a Putinist! I merely slipped." After some moments of awkward silence. Followed by the murder of the Raiser who dared question his superior via missiles. "Pie bombers attack!" As Gremlin gestures for a bombing run nothing happens. "Hey! Where is my air support?!"

… **...**

 **Earth's upper athmosphere**

Meanwhile in space the Pie bombers are quietly leaving the battlefield. Exiting the planets gravity field to activate their teleportation fields and return to any allied base far away from the mess they've gotten into and hopefully not get noticed by Gremlin.

"Say Blueberry 1. Do you really think it's a good idea to leave out commander out there on his own?"

"Yeah, like i'm facing that freak alone Merange 3. That girl tanked everything we threw at her. There's no way we mere mooks would survive a fight with that. Anyways let's get back to Charon before the Hunters or the IFS decide to send reinforceme-" A horrific scream and explosion later Blueberry 1 is gone. Vaporized by a blaster cannon shot.

"What's going on?!" And before the Pie's knew it the ten mook strong group was decimated by a group of black and gold AW-1: Hunter fighters led by an orange and brown Hunter fighter custom on the way to Earth and AW-4: Hunter dropships heading to the planet below.

The Hunter fighter a single seater starfighter with black coloring and vertical gold stripes in the nose and wings. It has a very long nose with the hunters emblem a bubble canopy, heavy laser cannons on each wing, above them a pod with a special device capable of launching energy nets, and missile launchers on the nose. While the custom has faster engines, dual turret cannons,, and can sometimes have wing mounted heavy torpedoes. Hunter fighters are equally capable in space, atmosphere, and underwater since manaplasma engines are naturally waterproof by design.

The Hunter dropship is a larger ship with a rectangular cockpit followed by a pod and an engine block with movable wings and both wing mounted cannons and a back mounted turret complete with a front mounted missile launcher. It is also black with gold stripes with the hunter emblem in both the front of the cockpit and a large one on the pod. The pod itself can hold twenty troopers and holds a crew of three. A pilot, a co-pilot, and a gunner.

… **...**

 **Back on Earth**

Honoka and Gremlin are in the sky trading blows with great force. Neither giving an inch as Raisers rush at the duo being taken out in the crossfire while Tsurugi dodges the whole mess with ease with short hops to the side. Honoka's swordplay is crude but overwhelming. Each blow driving back the commander who to his defense isn't that experienced in combat either getting his position thru treachery and his unique powers. This is quite possibly Aviator Gremlin's first fight against an equal, let alone better. Dark Messiah's plan to use him to assassinate Tsurugi was backfiring badly. Then again when a Japanese middle school girl is carrying what is essentially a tokusatsu version of the Tessaiga. Graceful and artistic swordplay naturally tends to be difficult even when your divine parentage gives you enough brute strength to wield it with one hand.

The two break off as Gremlin launches his missiles again which are dodged easily by Honoka who launches a sword beam in retaliaton. Gremlin dodges as well and flies upward at high speed gathering energy and bursting on fire. Taking a foot first dive onto the girl. Honoka grabs God Eater with both arms and swings it like a baseball bat smacking Gremlin into the ground while Honoka gets her sword knocked out from the recoil of the explosion but is otherwise fine. After getting back on her feet Honoka and Tsurugi face the defeated Gremlin who is flat on the floor.

Gremlin angrily mutters. "Well finish me off."

And Tsurugi in full agreement adds. "You heard him kid. Kill him so I can get back my driver and my ship and go home."

And Honoka merely drops her guard and undoes her transformation back into her civilian form shocking both Tsurugi and Gremlin who asks. "What are you doing?"

Honoka merely folds her arms and demands. "Release Boss from your control."

Gremlin laughs "You fool didn't the boy tell you? I can't just snap my fingers and break the spell on a Raiser. Once they are corrupted that's all she wrote. Speaking of which." Boss snuck up behind the duo of Honoka and Tsurugi striking down the former with his sickle causing her to bleed and giving Tsurugi a powerful kick enhanced by his barrier abilities that send Tsurugi flying. Gremlin gets up and looks at the fallen Honoka alongside the mind controlled Boss. "Well, well, well, looks like your little rampage ends here." Grabbing Honoka by her head, Gremlin lifts her upwards and prepares to finish her off when he and Boss are shot from behind by very powerful blasts of energy causing him to lose his grip on the girl.

The Hunter fighter ships arrive just in time. Swooping down from the sky and spreading out. Killing the Raisers with their more powerful blaster cannons with the exception of Boss who barely manages to push back the enemy assault and thus he and Gremlin are forced into retreat alongside whatever survivors as the Hunter dropships land and open their pod bays releasing its compliment of troops. Yukikaze troopers the hunter guilds mooks. ashigaru infantrymen in space in motif. black and gold armored troops in full body suits with blocky chest armor and shoulder pads and helmets that can be described as space age samurai helmets with full face visors and a small mouthpiece with three vents, tiny horns and in front of the helmet the emblem of the guild. Led by a commanding Inazuma trooper who is similar in design but with ruby red parts where the gold would be, larger and longer horns, a larger and more ornate mouthpiece, and angled shoulder pads. All carrying rifles, guns, swords, and large riot shields spreading out to hunt down the enemy.

As both a dropship and the orange and brown fighter loomed closer to the duo Honoka passed out. The last thing she saw was Tsurugi waving his arms at the ships.

… **...**

 **An unknown hospital room, several days later**

Waking up in a strange white room Honoka finds herself in a open stasis pod a pearly white oval construct designed for medical purposes. This is the first time she's seen one since this is the first time she's been wounded badly enough to require nanomachine cellular repair treatment. The pod is connected to several cables in its back which provide both power and the nanomachine and stem cell mixture required for the treatment of injuries. The nanomachines are controlled by a master hive custom AI who use the stem cells to repair the organic tissue while the body is in stasis.

"Where the hell am I?"

A nearby door slides open revealing an elven woman with an icy an detached outlook. Possessing short neck length ice blue hair and gold eyes with a doctors eyepiece and wearing a ice blue version of the hunter guild's uniform. A jacket with six buttons and white gloves and shoes. And oddly enough pants instead of a skirt with a pocket on the left side and the guild's emblem on the right and a white lab coat with some medical equipment. Honoka started checking the elf out only to be disappointed that she wasn't all that attractive.

The elf meanwhile commented in a flat and emotionless monotone. "Excuse me miss, I happen to be a widow." And revealed a pair of wedding rings made into a makeshift bracelet alongside a gold chain in her right wrist. "Just because my husband died 300 years ago doesn't mean i'm not still faithful to him. Also we elves happen to be long lived and I don't look forward to a prison sentence for seducing a minor."

Honoka ends up blushing in embarrassment while the elf doctor continued her explanation. "Anyways my name is Doctor Ventus Vi Endulf. As you can guess from the pointy ears I am an elf. Medical officer for the Irregular hunter guild and specialist in cellular biology and..." Ventus waved her right arm to the side and summoned a flowing stream of energy that landed some distance aside the duo creating a eight foot tall ice sculpture of an emperor penguin in a fancy pose. "cryogenics." The twintailed girl is impressed at the feat.

Checking Honoka's vitals with her driver it having an ice blue coloring alongside the gold stripes. Ventus puts it away and gives a hand to her patient. "Well i'm happy to say you have a clean bill of health." And gives Honoka her red and orange driver. "We've been examining this driver and decided to let you keep it."

Honoka is amazed at the news. "Really? I thought these things are important." And as she looked at the driver she noticed at the ID icon in that it said Honoka Mikage instead of Honoka Kaname. "What's this Honoka Mikage thing?"

"First question is yes. Drivers are important, but they are still merely mass produced tools. Without the transformation program from the Kagami Research Facilities they would be nothing more than smart phones with some extra security. And second question is yes. We gave you a fake identity with the name of Honoka Mikage. As far as the public and the government knows Honoka Kaname was a civilian killed in the crossfire in Akihabara. The fact that you are Madoka Kaname's daughter is also top secret. Only I, High command, and Professor Tsurugi are aware of that detail. And we ask you to keep it a secret."

"Professor Tsurugi? I'm hard pressed to believe it."

"Yes, although he may not look like it Professor Tsurugi Ichijin is one of the head scientists of the Irregular hunters guild. And a major stake holder and technical consultant in the KRF. Taking over from the legendary Professor Kagami Ichijin a famous roboticist who was involved with the development and acceptance of the 3rd generation of robotics. Anyways that's enough of me. The guildmaster wishes to see you as soon as possible and i'm quite busy. So our intern will have to take it from here. Miss Tsukoyomi please come in."

The door opened revealing a young human girl the same age as Honoka. With long flowing blue hair that reached the back and a serious quiet expression not showing her eyes for some reason. She was taller, and fairly more muscular but not by much. But unlike Honoka it was clear that this girl exercised regularly. Like Ventus she wore an uniform but had no gloves or doctors coat.

"Good day, I am Gekkou Tsukoyomi. Nice to meet you miss Mikage." Gekkou politely bows causing Honoka to blush and suddenly stand to attention.

"N-nice to meet you Gekkou-chan!" She blurts out while thinking. "Definitely my type."

"Shall we get going? The guildmaster is expecting us?"

"For a threesome?" Honoka mused to herself out loud. Obviously her counterparts were not amused and Gekkou swiftly grabbed Honoka by the ear and pulled her out of the room at top speed.

… **...**

The two girls walk thru the facilities hallways. Honoka looks around amazed at was she sees. From the sterile and advanced medical facilities to the shuttle port that would take them to the guildmaster's office. It is a completely different from Akihabara. Full of activity and life as countless sentient beings of all shapes and sizes work hard at their jobs. And then as the shuttle leaves the medical wing thru a large tunnel Honoka sees an amazing sight from her window seat. She's seen it in anime before but never in real life. A massive cityscape covering the inside of a massive space colony shaped like a giant asteroid. Numerous other shuttles and spacecraft covered the sky beneath an artificial sun which was powered by the sun outside the colony that regulated a day and night cycle for the colony as well as artificial weather.

The shuttle itself is fairly large and maneuverable even though its a bulky D-tess class shuttle. A giant block with wings and thrusters designed to carry 100 passengers of countless species, thousands of tons of cargo, plus a crew of three. So obviously it had a massive load capacity. Able to carry over ten million tons with ease with blaster cannons for defense on both its wings and one on a fin on top of the shuttle. The guild's version of the D-tess also have shields and can be overriden by a central AI to serve as emergency defense decoys in the case that the interior of the colony is invaded.

"Gekkou-chan what is this place?" Honoka asks excitedly face glued to the viewscreen as a flock of flying monkeys pass nearby. Tiny palm sized monkeys which can fly instead of climb and have special hair that evolved similar to feathers. They can live in space colonies by scavenging for trash and stealing food from colonists and can be seen as pests but can be trained as short ranged messengers. And are often used inside colonies just like pigeons and butterflies are used planetside.

"Well we're in Skywalker base the main headquarters of the Irregular hunters guild. Situated in the depths of the Tundra asteroid field. Apparently this station was once home to an ancient library from long ago. But something happened to the people who inhabited the place. Some say they went insane from the isolation and tried to summon a Chaos god which ate them all. Some say that a rogue zetsu infected the library and devoured everyone with its spores. And some say that the ghost of Bill Cosby came out from a cursed book, had it's way with the women and then killed everyone before leaving in a space pod."

Honoka weirded out at the last rumor could only comment "What?" Before Gekkou continued.

"Yeah the last rumor is obviously completely made up."

The shuttle stopped at the main office a surprisingly massive building at the "back end" of Skywalker base that looks like several high class Italian villas surrounding a massive ancient stone temple of alien design which can only be described as an ancient Greek temple carved into a stories high, miles wide, limestone boulder with metallic pipes crossing alongside it and green orbs glowing that dwarfs the mismatched modern Italian architecture besides it and feels bizarre in every shape way and form.

Gekkou took a look at the facility and began to explain to her guest. "Welcome to the main office miss Mikage."

"This is just surreal. I know this base was repurposed, but this is too much!" Honoka comments as the duo continues inside. Heading to the Italian villa closest to them.

"Well, asides from the main office this place is also home to the library I talked about before. The infinite library, an eldrichtian location where knowledge from all across the universe is gathered. A big reason why the guild turned this place into Skywalker base is to protect the library since it contains much knowledge of the days from before the Homun heresy when incubators were still in power." Gekkou stopped walking and lowered her head showing a fearful expression.

"Do you know a lot about the Homun heresy?"

"No miss Mikage. But what I heard sounds rather scary. I actually grew up in the middle of a war torn world. I still remember the day I managed to escape that planet. I honestly hope I never have to return to that place again."

Gekkou was terrified and Honoka knew it. Honoka ended up holding both of Gekkou's hands to cheer her up leaving her perplexed. "Don't worry it'll all be alright. Still this library place sounds like something out of Nanoha." Honoka joked with a smile

Gekkou looked puzzled and asked. "What's a Nanoha?"

Honoka looks surprised at hearing that Gekkou never heard of the series. "Seriously?" And ends up patting Gekkou in the back while at the same time at the distance a young orange haired border collie dog beastgirl wearing a cream colored bandanna with a lab coat and a red bow tie is looking at the duo with interest. Even putting on a pair of round rimmed glasses for a while until two more lab coated gentlemen interrupted her one a giant lizard man and the other a bald blue skinned humanoid with pointy ears and earrings.

The blue humanoid spoke up. "Chief librarian Bookman what are you doing?"

Bookman replied "That girl looks kinda familiar. I think i've seen her before."

The lizard man replied. "Yes Chief Elmar I believe that's one of the interns. Her name is Tsukoyomi, nice kid, way too quiet for my liking though."

"Not the intern! The other girl I believe I saw someone with her face in the ancient forbidden records."

The two attendants began to show concern with the lizard man speaking out. "Chief Elmar I don't think you should be talking about the forbidden records in public."

… **...**

 **Inside the main office**

Honoka and Gekkou entered the main office while passing several other people. Gekkou took care of the security while showing Honoka the ropes and the duo went on their way. The insides were even more unusual as they pass between Italian decoration, ancient supertechnology, passages made of moldy space rock billions of years old and any odd combination of the three all at once.

"Gekkou-chan, what's up with the décor anyways? It looks odd."

"From what I hear some of it is the guildmasters idea. She's from Earth like you but she's half and half apparently. Half Japanese, Half Italian from her mother's side. But her mother's relatives, the Marciano's were upset that she married a Japanese man and "dirtied the blood" Since the mother's side suffered greatly under some guy named Mussolini and apparently they hated the Japanese people because they were allies to the guy in some war. So the guild master was abandoned by her relatives after her parents died. Of course after the war there was hell to pay. She went back with the IFS and took their assets by force since they sided with the incubators during the Homun heresy and had them imprisoned for treason."

"Damn that's cold! But why?"

"Same reason they opposed the marriage. The Japanese sided with the Reibai, the Beastkin, the Anim, and the Golems during the Homun Heresy against the incubators and that was the start of the IFS, the current galactic government. So Marciano holdings sided with the incubators in the hopes that once the war was over they would be able to profit from Homun's powers. The guildmaster took over the company and its assets becoming very rich. Able to fund a good portion of the guild."

The duo go into a transport chamber. An enormous dark circular chamber with numerous consoles similar to a pay phone. Where Gekkou accesses one of the many consoles. An automated system asks where the duo wants to go to which Gekkou responds the guildmasters office. The console activates a beam above the console that scans the two girls whom disappear and then reappear in another smaller chamber in mere seconds surprising Honoka and worrying her a bit. And inside the office it gets even weirder as the place resembles the Japanese cityscape that Honoka left mere days ago if only older in design. It's clear the materials are more expensive and built to last compared to what was in Japan nowadays.

As the two entered the office. Honoka instantly remembered the scene in the first season of Nanoha where the main characters were introduced to Lindy Harlaown an alien who had a real Japanese fetish. Although not as full on gaijin as there what she saw was a young adult human woman serenely sitting in a seiza position sipping a cup of tea. Blonde with drill twin tails and wearing a yellow longcoat that even thought it covered quite a bit it still showed that the woman had quite the figure especially her breasts. Something Honoka saw and liked. With a white undershirt and small yellow tie underneath. The coat itself was buttoned up neatly and showed the hunters guild emblem on her right breast. She also had nearby brown cowboy boots and a brown beret with a guild logo on the right side and a white tuft hanging on the left. And on the table a really fancy tea set and a bunch of little cakes. Its also notable that next to her office was a huge kitchen that seemed more fit for a five star award winning restaurant than a single woman and it looked and smelled recently used.

The woman looked at the two of us and smiled speaking with a polite and familiar voice. "Greetings Mikage-chan. It's been quite some time since we spoke back on Earth. My name is Mami Tomoe, the guildmaster of the Irregular Hunters. I'm afraid the sub-guildmaster and my bodyguard are dealing with some important issues that have come up recently shortly after your arrival so i'm all alone."

Gekkou looked at the situation and bowed. "I see, if you don't mind. I must leave now. I have matters to attend to. Good bye." And she left closing the door behind her leaving Honoka waving.

Mami looked with concern and commented. "Ichijin-san was right. You have similar tastes in women as your mother." As she poured tea in a second cup. Honoka herself sat on the floor and looked at the tea being offered finding it strange. "It's Kangran black tea. A blend that originally came from India in the Kangra District. Normally I drink Darjeeling or Nepali but I felt like a change of pace."

"So this is black tea. Grandpa, Grandma, and me only drank green tea back home." Honoka took a sip and was amazed at the taste. "Wow! This is amazing!"

"Is that so?" Mami smiled proud of the compliment. "I've been brewing tea and baking sweets for a thousand years so i'm confident of my skills. I can give the greatest pastry chefs in the universe a run for their money. Truth be told if the heresy never happened I would have become something like a baker or even a TV personality."

"Mami why am I here?"

"It's quite a story so I should start from the beginning. Basically seeing as you, your adoptive parents and maybe your boss are legally dead. I want you to make a contract with me an become a magical girl!"

After a moment of unpleasant silence Honoka bolts for the door as Mami rushes to stop her by grabbing her leg. "It was just a joke Kaname-chan! Just a joke!" And the two sit down again.

Honoka upset reprimands Mami. "You do know people don't joke when saying those words?" Even pointing to a nearby poster at the wall showing the face of a strange white creature with red eyes and a creepy smile with a small solar system being destroyed and the words "Beware the enemy!" On top of the poster with the seal of the IFS at the bottom left corner. The letters I,F, and S above a blue bar with three golden stars. Showing that its basically a propaganda poster.

Mami sighed and remarked. "Yes, that poster is actually a bit of a personal reminder. To never forget my sins."

"Your sins Mami?" Honoka looked at the guildmaster concerned.

"Yes, I still remember that battle clear as day in the witches labyrinth. I had Homun on the ropes. I managed to disable her powers using my magic and could have killed her by shattering her dark crystal. But I hesitated and she escaped with the help of Oktavia von Sekkendorf. Another witch which was also responsible for her awakening as the demon lord. If I only knew back then how dangerous the demon lord would become. I would have murdered her without hesitation. If only she was dead maybe Bebe would still be alive." You could tell Mami was furious when she recalled those memories. "Homun and the incubators stole everything from us. Our hopes, our dreams, our homes, our salvation, our loved ones, our very future. All of them gone forever all because they couldn't accept the way things were."

"The way things were?"

"Those cards you hold now. The card with the picture of Kaname-san. Apparently is a physical fragment of the Law of cycles." Honoka looked confused. "Kaname-chan, what i'm about to tell you is one of the states biggest secrets. For a thousand years the inquisitors of the IFS have blown up entire planets to ensure that a single person with this knowledge dies."

"A thousand years ago. Not just this galaxy, but the entire multiverse was a very different place. The magic we take for granted now was a mysterious force that defied logic and reason. Capable of doing just about anything as simple as healing wounds to as complex as reviving the dead and turning back time."

"Reviving the dead?! That's impossible!" Honoka is in shock at hearing those news. She had heard rumors of using magic to travel thru time in the seedier corners of the internet. But reviving the dead? That was mere fantasy!

Mami lowered her head and looked at her teacup with a sad expression. "You're wrong. You only believe that it's impossible because we manipulated history to make you believe its impossible. Because it was those things that led to the rise of the demon lord Homun. The demon lord Homun loved your mother and wanted her for herself. She betrayed and killed Akemi-san the woman Kaname-san loved. Stole their powers and brought the incubators into her service beginning what would be known as the Homun heresy. A war that would span six years and consume the universe.

"Afterwards the goddess Gretchen appeared and alongside myself. Nagisa Momoe, Kyoko Sakura, and Sayaka Miki began fighting the demon lord all across the world. Trying to find a way to escape Earth and head to Incubaa where Homun holed up. Then the aliens showed up. A combined fleet of survivors from the reibai, the anim, the beastkin, and the golems were also tracking down Homun and found that she originated from Earth. Joining forces with a group of scientists led by the reibai Kagami Ichijin her adopted brother Tsurugi, Tsuruya Dattaya a miko of Reibai, and Ciel Fuuma an earth born Puella magi that was stranded in space due to the dimensional changes caused by the Law of cycles and ended up in Reibai. And formed the group known as the Five heroines."

"With the five heroines leading the charge we gained allies and drove off the incubators from countless worlds they controlled. Eventually driving them back to their homeworld of Incubaa where the final battles of the heresy took place in. Eventually we confronted Homun atop Bangado towers the main hive of the incubators. In the end The goddess Gretchen sacrificed herself to strip Homun of her powers and Kagami struck the demon down. Decapitating her with one swift stroke as Homun was reduced to a mere mortal again. The war was won and the united army became the foundation of the Internal fleet systems. But Kyubey one of the incubators and the one who masterminded the war escaped in the chaos and for hundreds of years fled as the entire universe hunted him down."

"But ten years ago. Something went very wrong. Kyubey returned with a powerful ally in tow. A mysterious pink and black magical girl with incredible power that calls herself Dark Messiah. With a transformation completely unlike ours. More like a monster than a magical girl. I think you've fought one of them in Akihabara."

Honoka closes her eyes and mutters. "Gremlin."

"Correct, Her power was incredible. We didn't stand a chance. Dark Messiah went to assault the planet Reibai. Kagami Ichijin-san and I alongside an army division of the IFS went to face her. But in the end the planet was destroyed and I was the sole survivor of the affair."

"The IFS? What do you mean Mami-san?"

Mami scratches her head and smiles. "Ah yes I guess you wouldn't know. But the guild was once part of the military. And I was the supreme commander of the IFS armed forces but left after the destruction of Reibai forming this organization." Mami grew somber, quickly gaining a sour taste in her mouth. "I couldn't stay there anymore after Bebe died in the crossfire. And Miki-san looked the other way. There are even rumors that she took an under the table deal. That Miki-san would hold off reinforcements while Dark Messiah destroyed Reibai and killed its defenders. Giving Miki-san a clear path for a promotion. I honestly hope that isn't true. But she never did agree with my methods and she was always resentful of Ichijin-san especially since she was the one who killed Homun. Miki-san hated Homun and always wanted to kill her herself especially after she betrayed Madoka and always claimed she was robbed of her destiny by a so called xeno."

Honoka was appalled at the word xeno. After all the word is basically a racist slur for an alien species. Of course this also counts when a non human refers to a human.

"And thus its been a three way conflict since then for the past ten years. Neither side really gaining an advantage over the other, at least until now. Those cards you have were originally a crystal that came from another world that suffered a dimensional distortion similar to a witches labyrinth but different." Mami showed Honoka several pictures in a holoscreen from the table. Including a planet that looked oddly similar to Japan before it was destroyed in the heresy and strange monsters unlike any Honoka has seen in real life. Mainly orange blobs and blue humanoids with, red bellies? The truth is that they looked just bizarre like computer generated graphics edited upon the real world. Honoka couldn't help but think that this was all photoshopped. But then again she had heard of witches from her grandpa. Corrupted Puella Magi whose forms and powers boggled comprehension. Could these be witches? Mami ended up answering those questions soon enough. "Believe or not Kaname-chan those aren't witches. Those are noise."

"What?" Honoka muttered. "Noise, as in the monsters from Symphogear?"

"Yes I couldn't believe it either when Tsurugi first reported it. But the world was basically transformed into a facsimile of the world in Symphogear." Mami showed another photo showing three high school age girls. Two of them one in orange armor and one in blue armor with a sword are facing off against a girl with red armor wielding giant waist mounted Gatling guns.

"I recognize those girls." Honoka answered as she began to point. "The orange one is Hibiki Tachibana, the blue one is Tsubasa Kazanari, and the red one is Chris Yukine. But why are they fighting each other?"

"Yes, about that. These worlds aren't exact copies. They seem to be weird mishmashes of different bits and pieces of the world it was and the anime that possesses it. Creating its own story independent of its stories origin. Truth be told i'm not exactly sure of the whole specifics. Magitech isn't my forte, as much as I hate to admit it I may be one of the most powerful magicians in the galaxy but I really do not understand how the stuff works. When I was younger I just thought up ribbons and poof there they were. And with those ribbons I could create building sized cannons."

Honoka slams her hands on the table in disbelief and yells. "Seriously!"

"Yeah." Mami admits. "All that stuff I did back in the war. All made out simple ribbons. I basically taught myself how to engineer everything from swords, to muskets, to railguns, to tanks, all out of simple ribbons. All out of necessity because every time I faced a witch in close quarters I choked." Honoka was awed at hearing this. "I was weak back then. My weakness costed me everything. When I was young I lost my parents and was left to fend for myself for years on end. Then Bebe came along. Truth be told even after all these years I never really understood why she decided to just one day show up and insert herself into my life. Even after the war and losing the ability to use her doppel and most of her combat capability we were still very close. And then she was killed because she was visiting the planet Reibai during the day of its destruction."

"You know Mami-san as informative as this all was. This was one long and boring info dump. What did you basically kidnap me for?"

"Well to be blunt. Those alterations are caused by crystals. The same crystals Tsurugi carried with him, that you turned into cards and used as a transformation power up. Basically I want you to go with Tsurugi to worlds like the one I showed you. Collect the crystals that alter the worlds and restore them to normal before the Cycles cult or the IFS gets their hands on them. Tsurugi was doing these missions alone to maintain secrecy but now that Dark Messiah has caught wind and sent Gremlin with the express purpose of assassinating him. I believe he will need a bodyguard. Anyways you don't need to answer right away. For now you should get a tour of the base. I'll get someone to show you around.

A voice from the roof suddenly spoke up. "So this the new girl." As a lightning bolt struck behind the duo revealing a tall muscular red oni woman with short platinum blond hair and golden slanted eyes. With a sleeveless amaranth red gi with the same colored shorts with the hunter gear logo on the breast, bandage wrapped arms, and yellow boots. She also carried a large jug in one arm and a massive jet black kanabo on the other one with a pair of rotating generators underneath the spikes but above the handle. "Sup, name's Rai Kumo of the oni race. Mami-san's bodyguard for the past ten years per the orders of the Fuuma clan head. As well as her latest magician apprentice."

Mami smiles and asks Rai. "Could you guide Mikage-chan to where the other crystals are located? I'm guessing Rattle-san is still dealing with the crystals as well."

Rai smiles as she gets closer to Honoka and gives her answer. "Yup the vice-guildmaster is still waiting for Bookman to show up. You're gonna have to get Murakumo to sniff her out at this rate. As for this girl leave her to me! She's in good hands!"

Rai and Honoka leave the room. And after a few moments of peace Mami begins to wonder. "Kaname-chan looks a lot like Akemi-san as well. She reminds me of this hypothetical baby between the two I saw once. Only it had more purplish hair instead of black. But that's impossible, Akemi-san's corpse was destroyed after her death and we made sure all traces of her DNA was eliminated. But the DNA results are clear as day. Somehow, someway, that girl is Madoka Kaname's biological daughter. As utterly impossible as it seems somehow Kaname-san had a child again." A picture shows the report which among numerous other facts shows several facts including that Madoka and Honoka are a genetic match and that something is interfering with the systems ability to determine who the father is.

… **...**

 **In another area of Skywalker base**

Gekkou enters a hidden room in a small building with no windows a fair distance away from any civilization in the middle of a grassy field. There she finds three strange aliens. A golem, a demon, and a short man inside a bulky sealed radiation suit with an atmosphere conversion pack which in his case is a medium sized sealed black dome for a backpack with millimeter wide vents on its sides. The golem himself is an alien not a magical one so it is a massive twelve foot tall barely human like behemoth composed of floating slates of marble with three stones for a head that vaguely resemble a head. Each slate floating and separate and floating to form the hulking creature. Having the all too fitting codename Marble Slates because its body was made of a material that felt as hard as solid marble. The demon known as Malicious Troll was a slim and handsome red skinned devil with long blonde hair, green eyes, and a huge pointy nose, and a purple suit and bowler hat with a green tie. And finally Essence Stealer, a bon. A being who instead of being composed of for example carbon is composed of the element boron. His bulky suit makes him look squat and clumsy but he is quite agile and the suit itself is pitch black with a blood red screen and it also had a small access panel in its chest. His gender is unknown to all but is referred to by the others as male. An odd quirk of this trio is that they were only known by their wizard names. Even referring to themselves and each other as such in private an odd thing to do. Another quirk is that they do not transform. Although transformation is a relatively modern thing for magicians. The advent of drivers which gave all the benefits of Puella Magi and more with none of the drawbacks made them a common tool of combat with traditionalists who opposed its usage quickly being crushed underfoot by the organized and disciplined military might and sheer numerical superiority of the early IFS.

Troll informs the group. "People it's time to strike. I assume you have everything ready girl?" His voice being notable for having the feel and tone of a used car salesman.

Gekkou answers. "Yes, I managed to obtain the access codes to steal the crystals."

Troll smiles and boasts. "Then we will be the distraction. Those fools believe the IFS would never attack Skywalker base as long as the former commander is protecting it. Well its high time we prove them wrong."

Stealer whose voice is even creepier. Being high pitched and slightly distorted thru mechanical methods laughs and yells. "I can't wait! There are so many strong fighters here! I have always wanted Mami Tomoe's essence for my own. All the while Slates just watches silently cracking its knuckles.

Gekkou simply adds. "Very well, just remember your part of the bargain."

"Of course, you'll get one of those elite driver models they have. Still I don't get why you want that instead of something like cash like the rest of us." Troll muses genuinely curious of their mysterious partner who merely opens a crack in space that turns into a portal.

"Never mind let's get ready." Gekkou comments as the four prepare for the attack thinking to herself. "Soon it will begin. No that won't be necessary."

 **To be continued...**


	3. Chapter 3: Honoka's bizarre adventure

A musical fanfare plays out in a black and white screen as the words "The surgeon general says. Winners don't do drugs! Except steroids. In which case, use lot's on drugs!" then "Enrich the country! Strengthen the military!" are shown in the style of an old World war 2 propaganda film.

A bombastic male voice begins his announcement. "For almost a thousand years our boys and girls in blue have patrolled the stars keeping us safe from the bunnycat menace. Even thought the Demon lord Homun has long been slain. His collaborators, the incubators. Still remain at large to this day." The picture shows dozens of IFS Guardsmen who normally are fully suited troopers in navy blue and gray but now are shown in black and white. With a distinctive T-shaped visor, a tactical vest that reaches to the belt and gloves and boots. Chasing incubators which are strange four legged animal things with long ears and red eyes that are a cross between a rabbit and a cat. Earning the distinctive nickname on bunnycats, They do not emote and possess a frozen smile and their ears are flexible and dexterous often serving as hands. Tracking them to a corner and shooting the cornered critters into goo without mercy using machine guns in a manner similar to the Saint Valentines day massacre. The one from the prohibition era not the school shooting mind you.

"The incubators evil spawns of darkness have schemed in the shadows for countless millennia. Undermining society and corrupting our youth with promises of power and glory. Only to transform them into invasive species known as witches. These formerly silent killers are capable if left unchecked of exterminating the population of a planet in a matter of years. Until the Homun heresy altered the universe's filter allowing anyone to see and interact these creatures regardless of magical potential. These creatures rampaged across Japan and later many other worlds leaving a trail of toxic waste known as miasma."

The screen shows older footage involving several ruined cities and areas such as the great wall of China being smashed in several places including a Chinese army tank being smashed into the ground and buried halfway turret first. Huge swats of the Australian outback reduced to lifeless cracked purple stone with mist oozing from the cracks. And the city of Mikitihara in total ruins with a giant worm creature covered in shadows towering over the ruins.

The scene later changes to a darkened private movie screen where a young human woman with neon blue hair, dark skin, elaborate neon blue tattoos in her cheeks that resemble ancient Greek writing and a red butterfly mask with six gold vents with her hair having two downward sloping strands that resemble butterfly antenna. She wears a red and gold female version of the IFS commander variant uniform with a cape for extra swag. The uniform itself is similar to the normal ones being a red coat with the IFS logo emblazoned in her right breast with a skirt and fancier striped gold cuffs and gloves with gold boots. Another character appears opening a door behind her. This one a female cyan blue robot with an IFS uniform this one a standard navy blue uniform with normal cuffs and no capes and thigh high knee socks with shoes for some reason. With her head being a giant singular red eye that covers the face, a small braided blond ponytail, and a tiny antenna.

The robot girl, Deputy commander Pantheon Redips who is also known as both Secretary Redips since she is known as the galaxy's greatest office worker. And yes there is a contest for that. She is a five time consecutive winner. It involves sharks, trained snipers, and having to watch the Fairy dance arc from Sword art online. The annual contest has a surprising and entertainingly high body count. And the wizard name Camera Fiend since she can summon and control remote spies and use them to spy on people. Pantheon asks. Commander Banban are you watching old videos again? I mean its time to begin the attack on Skywalker base."

Asagi Banban also known as Papillion Gun. Due to her butterfly motif and wind powers which she uses mostly to shoot at things. The movie is showing tanks crushing incubators in a scene straight out Tienanmen square with some surrendering only for them to be crushed by the IFS tank treads while Asagi gets up and smiles. "Excellent, let's see how the former commander deals with the bounty hunters. After all Malicious Troll and his team are the best at what they do. Kinda odd that they never reveal their names though. Not even in their social security cards. How does that even work?"

Redips taps her earpiece an odd quirk to activate her database scanning function and gives an answer. "Apparently Marble Slates may be just like that naturally there was a family member called Volcanic Rock who also worked as a bounty hunter alongside Dragon Lady. But the two disappeared shortly after the resignation of Trinity member Oriko Mikuni."

"Damn Mikuni's! Those crooks were nothing but trouble I wish Mami-san didn't have to associate with those people." Asagi lowered her head in frustration.

"Unfortunately Trinity Mikuni was the only one with the connections and political pull to legitimize our movement among the Japanese public. Without Oriko like it or not humanity would not have easily accepted magical girls after the Homun heresy and especially after Operation Pacifica."

Asagi looks at the movie screen which shows badly injured and underfed incubators with numerical tattoos on their hind legs being led into a large chamber by soldiers. These ones having a different armor than the Guardsmen but having the IFS logo in the center of their chests. Their helmets are are round with winged earpieces and triangular visors with stripes and an odd oval shield on their left shoulder with their gauntlets and boots being larger and more balloon like and a belt. And on the background overseeing the operation is Mami Tomoe, Asagi Banban, and Tsurigi Ichijin alongside several other figures. After the last incubator is herder in massive steel door of the chamber the insides fill with gases and even thought it's not fully shown by the movie it is clear that the incubators are being killed by some sort of poison gas and then the screen turns off.

"Well let's see how the movie plays out this time. Secretary Redips."

Redips' eye glows red as her face darkens. "Of course, those three are more than capable of subverting the legendary defenses of Skywalker base by themselves. Even Mami Tomoe the most powerful category 5 alive will fall to their gifts." And proceeds to do a terrifying and geeky chuckle.

… **...**

 _It is the year 1000 PCE. For more than a hundred centuries The Immortals have sat in the golden thrones of Center. They are the masters of mankind and countless other races by the will of the gods, and masters of a million worlds by the might of their inexhaustible armies. Living carcasses cursed by powers from the dark age of magic from countless lives have been lost to end. In a war so monstrous and far reaching that entire populations are silenced out of fear of a resurgence of such events._

 _Yet even in this age war is a constant. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon infested miasma of the warp. Vast armies give battle in uncounted worlds. Greatest among these soldiers are the legionnaire space marines, super warriors enhanced by the incubators former technology. Their comrades in arms are legion: The Internal fleet systems armed forces and countless planetary defense forces, the ever vigilant inquisition, and the tech masters of the mechanocracy to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants, and worse._

 _To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget hope and miracles, for they have been spurned in the pursuit of selfish desire. Forget the promise of forgiveness and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace among the stars, No happy ending for magical girls, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods._

 **Chapter 3: Honoka's Bizarre adventure**

 **Skywalker base, Yavin's great library**

Skywalker base is massive. Once upon a time it was an asteroid 10 kilometer's across at its widest point and 9,000 floors from top to bottom. And then some ancient monks somehow managed to hollow out this monster and create a fully functioning base out of it without causing structural collapse. Even the Reibai who are known for hollowing entire mountain ranges of their world to build their ancient machine factories considered the creation of Skywalker base a feat of insanity since Reibai is littered with caverns that have collapsed with their workers still in them. Victims of experimentation on how to dig better caves. Inside there is Yavin's great library an even more insane creation. It is said that somewhere in the multiverse there is an ancient library that has existed floating in the void of space since the dawn of time. The remnant of an ancient race of magicians that destroyed themselves and that their creations even now lie dormant just waiting to destroy. The monks amazed by this feat created Skywalker base and Yavin's library in awe and worship of this ancient race. But the monks are no more. The monks have been gone for a long time and now the Guild uses this place as a military base to keep it away from their enemies.

Honoka Kaname now going by Honoka Mikage since she had her death faked is heading towards the vault area of the library alongside Rai Kumo, Mami Tomoe's apprentice and bodyguard of sorts mostly for appearances. While Rai is showing the prospective rookie around, telling her about the library's rich history. Honoka is staring at Rai's butt and has crashed into several people and objects while lusting after the female oni. Rai is oblivious to this.

Rai was at that time explaining some important facts about the drivers. "Honoka there is something important you must know about the power you have now. This power, the mahou driver system isn't some power of love and friendship thing like in anime and manga. It comes from a dark place. The technology was stolen from the incubators during the heresy by one of the heroes Kagami Ichijin. Before she became a hero she was a scientist and she discovered the secret of the incubators method of transforming people into magical girls and succeeded in replicating the process on herself using the mahou driver system. (sigh) Why do I have to explain the technical stuff? Can't the guildmaster be arsed to take a course in modern magic? That way we wouldn't have to rely on the Ichijin clan, they are up to something I'm sure of it. Even if we Koga ninjas, the Tomoe family and the Ichijin clan have been sworn brothers since end of the heresy."

Pulling out her own driver this one being colored a bright amaranth red and yellow Rai begins to explain the specifics. "Apparently these drivers have special programs that convert data into physical mass. Inside this phone and yes this is an ordinary smartphone with enough data storage capacity to essentially safely digitize and store a living body and exchange it with another one. This body is artificial, composed of data material based of synthetic proteins with an artificial magical core that synchronizes with your natural body and soul allowing your soul to transfer between your natural and data body between transformations. These two cores also increase your magical capacity by square using the synchronization allowing a mere soldier to perform feats of amazing... amazingness..."

At that time Honoka was distracted and crashed into another researcher who is berating her for breaking several vials with a Slavic accent. "You fool! Those vials could have cured cancer! How will you make up for that!" Unfortunately the researcher was a pretty librarian so Honoka was enjoying it.

The duo finally enter the vault where the crystals were supposed to be stored and there not only was the previously seen head librarian the cat beastkin Elmar Bookman who this time was alone with the vice-guildmaster a short male lamia known only as Rattle or as Rattle Party. Unlike in most media lamia here are mostly reptilian since they are aliens. Even if they have some humanoid features like arms. There are no cute monster girls in the lamia population. Rattle himself is three feet tall, four with his sombrero since he really likes Mexican stuff to the point of absurd stereotype. Bronze colored scales, a colorful poncho of yellow, red, green, and blue with strings hanging down and a target in the center, mostly out of necessity since lamia's lower bodies are snake like and thus cannot wear pants. Also the poncho has an inbuilt sound and speaker system and can play music and works as a radio and transmitter which is useful for his fighting style, dark tinted lenses, and a cheerful smile.

Rai begins the conversation with introductions. "Greetings one and all! This is the newbie Mami-san was talking about Honoka Mikage. Honoka these people are on the right the vice-guildmaster Rattle no last name. And the head librarian Elmar Bookman."

Honoka moves forward and shakes both of their hands commenting. "The head librarian looks rather young for such an important position." Bookman looks offended at the comment when Rattle makes his voice known.

"Miss Bookman is young but she is quite capable. Not only is she an intellectual prodigy but a high level esper."

Honoka asks "Don't you mean a magician? I mean I'm pretty sure even high level martial artists with crazy ki control can achieve "psychic abilities" like the gods of destruction." Our protagonist is swiftly raised from the ground and held upside down freaking Honoka out.

Bookman bluntly states. "Magicians and martial artists take years to master these kinds of techniques. An esper or psychic can naturally do this from birth." And proceeds to strip Honoka naked with her mind.

Some time later and once Honoka is dressed again the foursome is looking at several cards in a shelf. Honoka asks to the others. "So those cards used to be crystals?"

Bookman hands a picture which shows a video of the crystals changing into cards similar to the one Honoka used to transform into a magical girl. "As you can see, the cards used to be crystals but somehow turned into cards." Honoka took out her Madoka card which Bookman looked at. "It's the same as the others, the only difference is that one has the face of Hibiki Tachibana and one has the face of Nogi Wakaba."

Honoka puts back her card and complains while folding her cards. "What's so important about these cards or crystals or whatever?"

Bookman replied "Truth is i'm not sure. What I can tell you is that these cards are physical manifestations of the Law of Cycles itself thought to have been destroyed a thousand years ago by the six heroes themselves. These cards can and have altered the physical and conceptual form of entire planets essentially retconning their entire existence into an entirely different self. Fortunately you managed to stabilize your crystal and turn it into a card preventing the Earth from sharing the same fate. And somehow when you did that these two cards transformed and the planets they were on returned to normal."

Rattle finally spoke out. "That is why we need your help Honoka. The galaxy, no the universe is being threatened by the demons of the past. I know you recently lost your family, and your employer has been enslaved by the Cycles Cult. But right now we need you. We need the one who inherited the powers of the goddess. Like it or not you two are the only ones who can pull it off."

Honoka worried asks "What do you mean you two? From the way you make this sound, i'm the protagonist. I wouldn't really need a sidekick."

Rattle explains. "Sidekick? What do you mean sidekick? You're just starting out. The only reason you even have an unique transformation is because you hijacked the professor's driver which had an elite custom model inside it. If anything you should be getting sent to Stardust Speedway where recruits are given basic training. We already discussed it and Professor Tsurugi will be accompanying you as both your assistant and personal tutor."

"Tsurugi?! But he's an unbearable asshole! I swear he gets his material from Sword art online abridged!" Honoka complains out loud. "Seriously the only way you can be such an ass is on purpose! Why can't Mami-san be my partner? I mean I would ignore everything she says when it comes to these boring exposition dumps. But at least Mami-san has a nice rack!"

Rattle coughs and mutters "Well Professor Tsurugi may be an unbearable asshole but he's the second best operative we have. Mami-san is far too busy dealing with guild duty to babysit a brat like you. And besides its not like you have anything better to do with the rest of your life." The last comment actually caught Honoka's attention. "I mean you are legally dead." The observation was super effective. "You have no home, no friends, no family." Critical hit. "If you go back to Akihabara you will only look forward to a life under the grid. Unable to get basic aid or services or even get back on your feet. You'll be forced to turn to teen prostitution to make ends meet and get kidnapped and broken by the Triads where only the sweet release of death at the hands of assassins from the town of Hakata. I mean shit's crazy there. They got some kick ass pork bowl ramen there too by the way. You should go there some time."

"I could go but I'm kinda dead you old man!" Honoka snaps back. "Seriously how the hell did you become the number two in this place? You could probably give Sonoko Nogi a run for her money as a web author with the gutter that lies between your ears!"

… **...**

 **Inside one of Skywalker Base's checkpoints**

A voice could be heard singing in the distance...

 _I don't give a shit._

 _I don't give a fuck._

 _I don't give a shit._

 _I don't give a fuck._

 _I might just give a shit._

 _I'm gonna eat your soul._

"That's enough Stealer we're here."

And so the three assassins sent by the IFS have arrived. Slick witty phantom Malicious Troll, gigantic quiet golem Graphite Slates, and mysterious being straight out of a radiation plant Essence Stealer. The trio have behind them an odd group of beings shuffling behind them. And thus the trio reach the checkpoint where they are greeted by guards. A standard duo of Yukikaze the guilds equivalent of the IFS Guardsmen and the Cycles cult Skull Raiser. And inside a commander unit known as an Inazuma. Normally they would have horned helmets with face visors that have small mouth vents, a small vertical stripe on top of the helmet with the guild's emblem and angular ear pieces. With the Inazuma horns being larger, the earpieces pointier, and the mouthpiece is connected by a bridge to the ears. The helmet gives the Yukikaze and Inazuma a demonic and intimidating look complete with the Yukis black and gold and Inus black and ruby coloring compared to the Guardsmen appearance which was based to emulated an extinct race of mercenary warriors from an age long past. The armor itself is fairly standard affair with a boxy chest plate and shoulder pads which in the Inus are pointy with gold or ruby lining in the middle and lower areas, gold or ruby gloves and boots with black squares. And a slick black body suit with several pegs that allow for equipment to be attached. Outside aesthetics the KRF-DV-1000 line and the IBR-9 line are known to be very similar in their internal workings. Which makes sense since they were both made by the same company Kagami research facilities a technology conglomerate and weapons developer that has been reverse engineering the technology that was taken from the incubators ever since the Homun heresy.

The helmetless Yukis one of them being a male wolf anim and the other being a blue scaled lizard creature with large bulbous eyes and three fingered hands as well as being very bony and tall look at the trio with the wolf greeting them.

"Greetings friends it's rare to see your kind around these parts. Are you friends of Miss Kumo or something?"

The lizard creature was suspicious and stared at Essence for a bit before speaking out. "Isn't that suit a Bon wanderer outfit?" The observation struck a chord with the IFS trio making them nervous that their cover was blown.

"What do you mean Mitthrawn? It is clearly some Homer Simpson cosplayer. It's strange that someone would do that but who am I to judge?" The wolf commented to the lizard being.

"Beowulf you fool! That has to be a Bon." Suddenly Mitthrawn is cut off as one of the shuffling beings punches off his head and the horde reveals itself to be vampires. Glowing radioactive green with great ferocity and somehow the vampire that killed Mitthrawn is mutating the killed off alien transforming him into a green skinned mutation with fangs and green glowing eyes. Terrified Beowulf summons his blaster rifle while his commander tries to summon backup. Other people and vehicles are also being slaughtered en masse during the panic all while Essence Stealer laughs madly.

"ESSENCE! ESSENCE! ESSENCE!" Stealer yells out in a maniacal manner as his vampiric horde rampages flailing like a lunatic his suit hiding some truly epic faces. "Those fools back home called me mad! Mad they called me! How dare they! They banished me from my homeworld! And forced me to wander the universe and serve others just because I like killing people, eating their souls, and bending them to my will so that they become MY ARMY!"

At that time the Inu leader is trying to get into contact with the main office while the essence vampires are going wild. The leader has put on his helmet and can only comment. "Shit! It had to be mages At! Why couldn't it be your average easy to kill Cultist or IFS Stormtrooper?! The metal walls suddenly crumble as Marble Slates crashes thru. It's mere brute strength able to annihilate reinforced titanium with anti beam coating like it was mere cardboard. And punches the commander outside thru the other wall with equal ease destroying all the equipment and smashing him into a lamp post then charging straight at him like a wild rhino. The commander reacts by firing laser blasts from his hands. His powers transform his energy blasts into beams with the properties of lasers including heat that reaches over 8,000 degrees kelvin and the fact that they are invisible to the naked eye straight to the brain and heart but Slates not only tanks the beams it absorbs them until it grabs the commander in a bear hug and tells him in a feminine and seductive voice while the commander is scared to death.

"Are you aware how marble can tolerate heat?"

And all the heat that was absorbed by the now revealed as female golem gathers to the center of her chest which fires a massive laser that vaporizes the Inazuma trooper leaving no remains. Even the driver was destroyed taking the original body with it and making sure the guy is dead for good.

As for Stealers vampires they had finished off the other guards and turned them into zombie slaves with Stealer looking on in approval. "That's the way! My power Essence Taker allows me to steal the essence or as you carbon based lifeforms would refer it to souls of my opponents and enslave them. Creating invincible zombie warriors under my control. Souls are also tasty the wolf tasted like hamburger and the alien tasted like Dongpo pork. Of course it works with any being that can conceptualize a soul which includes machines, the dead, and other non-organic existences."

"Let's hurry up and prepare the ambush. Stealing a transport and using it to sneak into the main office would be more efficient than walking all the way." Troll comments as the trio looks for places to hide. Slates being a ten foot tall floating rock monster cannot find a place to hide like her teammates and simply falls apart and poses as a pile of rubble.

… **...**

 **Back in the library's vault room**

Sirens erupt all over the Main office including the vault room surprising everyone inside. Honoka asks. "What is going on?" When an announcement is then given over the intercom.

"This is an emergency alert! Checkpoint Tango Pingas has been attacked by an unknown party. All traffic to Checkpoint Tango Pingas is being suspended until further notice."

Honoka comments. "Tango Pingas? Who comes up with such a horrible name?" With an embarrassed face all the while Rattle and Bookman look on in shock in horror at her comment and Mami shows up on a holo video screen in front of all of them with the screen somehow not being properly aligned and instead of showing Mami's face her breasts are being shown in full holographic 3D

"Greetings Kumo-san, Rattle-san, Chief Librarian, Mikage-chan! It seems that Checkpoint Tango Pingas in under attack by some very powerful enemies. And I mean strong to the point where they don't need drivers to fight their opponents."

Bookman added. "That explains why they managed to stay undetected until now. If these beings are fully organic. Then it is possible for them to hide their presence from our scanners unlike robots and driver avatars or beings with cybernetic implants which can be either chipped with tracers or have said implants tracked by their electromagnetic signatures.

"Yes, even to this very day there is a lot of dialogue when it comes to cybernetics and ninjutsu in our industry." Rai continues. "One of the reasons involve that very argument. Also Mami shouldn't you move the camera?"

Mami finally notices and fixes the camera giving everyone a view of her face much to Honoka's disappointment. "Anyways, Checkpoint Pingas is kinda important for me. Not only did I name it myself but im kinda guessing the guys who were in the post were killed pretty horribly."

Honoka looks on nervously and says. "Maybe they simply snuck up on them and used the Vulcan neck pinch on them?"

Mami smiled and asked. "Star Trek huh? Classic Roddenberry or the J. J. Abrams stuff? And no the suits are protected are protected against Vulcan neck pinches."

Honoka is amazed at hearing this utterly refusing to believe such an obscure western sci-fi situation would even be possible in an anime. "That's absurd! Anyways don't we have an army of super powerful planet busting ass kicking mages to deal with a few measly intruders?"

"Yes, but we are doing it instead! Rai! Rattle!" Rai and Rattle suddenly stand in attention behind both Honoka and Mami looking ready for action with our protagonist only able to think.

"This is amazing. There's no trace of their previous goofiness and banter. They... Actually... Look like they can get shit done! Damn i'm screwed!"

"Were going to deal with these troublemakers ourselves. And Mikage-chan will help of course. Miss Librarian please keep watch over this place." Bookman salutes as Rai and Rattle pick up and carry off Honoka and go on their way while she is kicking and screaming. Rattle uses his music based powers to paralyze her body leaving her helpless and carryable yet talkative.

"Scum! Perverts! SAO bad guys!" Honoka yells out as she is ignored

With Rattle happily mentioning that. "Well your home is destroyed and your parents are dead so its not like you would be losing anything by helping us."

Honoka was hurt by Rattle's comment but even then she couldn't help but think. "Grandma and Grandpa weren't exactly parents."

Rattle shot back with a stern and jaded. "Nonsense! They took ya in, they loved ya, they raised ya as your own even if you were a human and they were turtles. Lamia's like me, tiny and weak, can only wish we could get love like you did. Guildmaster is also an orphan. The Earth was really bad before Homun but it was livable. Now its just ruins being fought over by the descendants of ideologues who refused to changed. Mami's family was one of them and she ended up fighting them. Apparently they weren't too happy when her mother fell in love with a Japanese man and ended up disinheriting her. She never knew about her Italian heritage it was basically hidden away until Kyubey revealed it to the world to humiliate her in front of the Japanese. Believing that a half-blood couldn't be trusted to lead an army. To keep up appearances she executed her grandfather who mocked her all the way on live video. And collapsed afterwards in tears for days unable to lead the final push to capture Rome forcing Nagisa to call on the Inquisitors to "deal" with the problem."

Honoka could only dread to ask but. "How did they dealt with Rome?"

"The same way He who must not be named always deals with Humanity." Rattle jokingly comments while practically crapping his pants. "The slaughter of over two million Italians."

… **...**

 **Checkpoint Tango Pingas**

Back in the ruined checkpoint the villainous trio was still hiding with the protagonists D-Tess class shuttle approaching the area. Troll hiding in the office couldn't help but chuckle inwardly as the three will simply ambush the troops, steal the shuttle, and kill Mami Tomoe, with the portal girl taking care of stealing the other items from the vault. The shuttle remains eerily still and a large turret seems to slowly come out of the ships underside. The trio begins to become suspicious especially as Mami Tomoe's theme song Creden Justitian begins to play out over the shuttle's speakers. Leading to a massive burst of flames from the shuttle which consume Checkpoint Tango Pingas carbonizing any corpses that weren't turned into monsters and catching the government paid killers completely off guard as well as the viewing public as soon the situation began drawing a crowd and with it social media attention.

Inside the shuttle Rai is piloting the shuttle while Mami is handling the weapons and Honoka can only look on in awe and hypocritical disgust as the so called special place is being burnt to the ground. The trio look as the flames seem to be getting sucked away into a single spot at a very high speed.

Mami comments. "Well at least that solves how we were going to deal with the fire."

Rai looks at several instruments behind her for a brief moment that are screaming like crazy and says. "We need to get out here, now. I'm no tech expert but screaming instrumentation panels are not a good sign. And neither are eerie white hot debris piles right beneath and to the right of our blind spot.

Slates fires a massive blast that destroys the shuttle and flies far off into the distance. Punching a hole into Skywalker Base itself and compromising it. Of course the girls survive by transforming into their driver forms. Honoka Mikage of course with her Red Card form.

The driver screams out. "Red card! The card changing hero!"

 **The unknown potential**

 **Hunter's Guild agent**

 **Category undetermined mahou driver**

 **Red Card**

But outside of Honoka two more transformations land behind her. On the right a yellow/white avatar that is much less bulky the head itself is very round and has white glowing eyes the same cap of her original form, and the same drill twin tail hairdo. A yellow one piece chest armor with a white bow and straps, white under armor, yellow gloves and long boots with white straps. Mami Tomoe's driver form.

"Yellow Musketeer! Bang! Bang! Tiro!"

 **Orion's shooting star**

 **Hunter's Guild Guildmaster**

 **Category 6 mahou driver**

 **Yellow Musketeer**

And on the left a second form who lands somewhat less gracefully. Trying to copy Iron Man only to eat dirt face first. The armor is amaranth red and yellow with the helmet and mouthpiece being red and visor and horns being yellow. The armor itself looking more like a traditional Chinese kung fu dress with the red mostly covering the body and yellow accents rings and gloves and shoes. Unlike Mami, Rai quickly summoned a large spiked club known as a kanabo colored similar to her and possessing turbines underneath the spikes. The kanabo itself is freaking huge being twelve feet tall and so heavy that even drivers have difficulty handling the beast. Yet Rai as a testament to being an Oni can one-hand the beast without problems.

"Tao Kanabo! Bodyguard of steel!"

 **Thunderclap guardian**

 **Hunter's Guild Bodyguard**

 **Category 4 mahou driver**

 **Tao Kanabo**

Both Malicious Troll and Essence Stealer break out of their hiding place inside the building. Both horribly burnt and very pissed rushing towards the trio and the two end up separating the trio with Troll fighting Rai and Stealer fighting Mami skipping Honoka completely leaving her shocked at the situation.

"Hey what gives?! This avatar isn't cute enough to compensate for the fact that my grandparents are dead!" Red Card complains as she gets punched from behind by some... friendly forces? Beowulf and Mitthrawn once again alive but now turned into radioactive vampire monsters. Beowulf bulks up and lunges into Red Card stumbling into the battle Card tries to fight back the only reason she doesn't end up like Sayaka Miki is because Red Card is much stronger and even thru clumsy flailing the superior performance that being daughter to divinity provides her allows her to fight off trained soldiers. She manages to get a kick out and drive away Beowulf but Mitthrawn merely uses his prehensile tongue to surprise choke Red Card. Focusing her energy into anything Honoka somehow saw Mami's giant breasts and instinctively reached out to grab them which led to a flash of brilliance. And in the real world Honoka to yell out "God Eater!" And the giant sword from Earth to appear in her hands. It's blade shooting flames that decimate the tongue and skin of Mitthrawn and without skipping a beat God Eater yells out a demonic howl its fire going from red to purple.

"Final move! Finish it splendidly!" "Surge Eater!" And as Mitthrawn suffers he is struck down by Surge Eater a final move or finisher that is essentially a massive purple torrent of flame that consumed the alien and now to end it all the sword is summoning the fire back eating the remains of the guy.

As for Beowulf he gets weirder as he simply explodes from his previous body becoming a gigantic six legged wolf centaur monster with traits of a giant spider. He is huge, swift, his jaw is dislocated and drooling acid and the fur in his his tail can fire spider webbing, Towering over her foe he bum rushes into a frenzy tackling right into Mikoto straight into a large wall doing some sizable damage and being forced to use God Eater as a shield from Beowulf's more furious attacks.

"This is crazy don't I get anything good either?" Red Card complains in frustration when her visor eyes turn red and she manages to parry away the rampaging freak pushing him back with a dust cloud producing two other clones of herself. But her red eyes went back to normal. "I really wish this came with an instruction manual. But with our powers combined we will..." Then Beowulf would cause his left arm to swell up extra thicc and smash one of the copies into a pancake killing it good and scaring the other one badly into cowering behind the original surprising Honoka. Beowulf prepares for another strike when somehow he materializes a tongue that rockets out of the visor and straight thru the skull paralyzing Beowulf long enough to leave Red Card with a chance. "Splash Eater!" Red Card grabs her blade with both hands and as dozens of flaming purple blades skewer the abomination as it goes flying into its final death. Leaving Red Card winded but finally able to retract her helmet with her clone jumping for joy.

In other fights Rai as Tao Kanabo is battling the purple suited hipster Troll who seems to be to be doing quite well even at a disadvantage. Even when Tao is smacking Troll like a rag doll he seems unhurt meanwhile Tao is running out of steam fast.

"Dammit! How is this guy so durable?!" Tao curses as she drops her club and goes for broke. Charging up a red aura with yellow lightning and a drivers voice yells out. "Final move! Finish it splendidly!" As fog and rain cover the immediate area. And a blast of lightning erupts from Tao's body rising from the sky and landing on Troll. "Folgore! Celeste!" For several moments Troll is being pelted by electricity and once the destruction ended all that seemed left was a smoldering corpse. Tao couldn't help but find relief as the demon had essentially taken everything the oni has thrown at him without a care in the world. As she begin to walk off the husk that was Troll begins to crack open as an odd gas begins to burst from the body and then an explosion taking Tao by surprise with a giant snake bursting out from the ground and devouring her before disappearing just as suddenly.

… **...**

Inside the snake Tao recovers consciousness only to find herself bound and gagged all the while Troll appears in front of her seemingly unharmed. "How? You should be dead!"

Troll merely smiles and replies. "I'm sure you've heard of stories from before the days of the heresy about ninja being able to perform superhuman feats. How they could summon giant beasts from contracts signed with blood, create clones from mere chakra, and form mountains, rivers, and forests from out of nothing?"

"That's just fantasy!" Tao defiantly replied.

"Is it?" Troll merely smiles and gets closer. "You may not realize it, but you have quite a bit in common with those fake ninja you look down upon."

Tao looks upward leaving Troll to hesitate and with the yell of "Onibi!" fires a stream of flames from her mouthpiece that torches the insides of the snake causing great pain to it and breaking the spell or jutsu? And landing the duo in the top of a building some distance away of the original fight and right in the middle of several civilians who are amazed at the sight they just saw.

Troll smiled while drawing a simple butchers knife. "Interesting, so you can use fire and lightning magic at the same time."

"Seriously what is your issue?!" Tao yells out in frustration as she fires another stream of flames at Troll which are slashed apart by Troll's butcher knife. "Seriously what gives?!"

Troll merely leaps off the building as a giant snake erupts from the side of it causing the building to rip apart and collapse leaving Tao with little time to react let alone rescue anyone. Especially when another snake also appears to try to attack her while she is in in the air. This snake being some sort of black cobra, python, mutation as it also fired streams of venom from its mouth. And lightning and fire attacks just bounced off its scaly hide striking innocents instead and causing collateral damage. Forced to get close to the giant snake Tao summons her giant Kanabo once more the Kiba Oni and as she gets close to the snake it predictably tries to devour the oni leading Tao to discard her weapon and causing the snake to swallow it. Letting Tao activate it inside it and generate a massive thunderstorm inside the snake causing the beast to violently explode, causing numerous chunks to rain down on the streets below and Kiba Oni to return to Tao's hands but now the snake that took Troll with him vanished much to her frustration.

"What was that all about? Was that really snake magic? Or was that just normal summoning spells?" Tao asks to the air when she is struck in the back of her neck by a snake. Which reveals itself to be the tongue of Malicious Troll who managed to sneak up behind and above Tao managing to land an attack on her. The attack is both painful and managed to penetrate the driver system defenses as Tao is quickly reverted into her original form of Rai Kumo and once the damage is done Rai swiftly plummets into the ground. Crashing into the streets below with great force, surviving but falling unconscious.

"What an interesting person. She will make an interesting backup in the future." Troll muses to himself before activating an ear mounted communicator. "Marble have you finished cooling off? It's time to deal with the guildmaster."

Slates responds with an ambient noise of stuff falling apart. "Yes i'm ready, it seems Stealer and the guildmaster went off somewhere else and there is someone else here who just got off a fight. But she won't be too hard to shake off."

"Good, then let's meet up with Stealer and finish the mission. The girl must be finishing up her end of the bargain by now as well, Troll out." And so Troll flies off to find both Slates and Stealer to finish off Mami Tomoe.

On the ground Marble Slates rises from the wreckage and Red Card tries to intercept but is swatted away like a fly. Honoka charges up her sword to fire another blast of flames when Mami's voice is heard thru the communications. "Let them go Mikage-chan. I'll take care of these three loons. I'm already nearing a place where I can go all out. You go and check on Rai."

"Is Rai?!" Red Card asked with concern to which Mami commented.

"I'm not sure, that's why I want you to find out and call for help. Malicious Troll seemed to be acting oddly around Kumo-san. Even more than usual, i've had the displeasure of meeting Malicious Troll and he really lives up to that name. Normally he simply murders people with his knife and his crazy endurance while having a shit eating grin all the time. This snake summoning stuff is brand new to me. I was planning on killing them but after this mess capturing them for questioning seems to be a necessity."

… **...**

At that time Mami or Yellow Musketeer was leading Stealer into a large empty stadium with several Hunter Fighters and D-Tess shuttles hovering above at a distance alongside Yukikaze and Inazuma staying out of sight as the guildmaster and mercenary continue their chase. Stealer with a horde of zombie beasts that are half animal, half volcano in appearance whose mere footsteps melt the road with the sheer heat they give out and launch fireballs out of their mouths which Musketeer easily dodges with grace whether by flying away or by simply blasting the flames away with her own musket shots. A simple single shot musket rifle created out of ribbons known as Tiro.

Musketeer enters the stadium entrance landing for a brief moment to taunt Stealer who is rampaging thru the streets in attempt to crush her. "So I see that Ban-san is still relying on you three for her dirty work. Its a shame my old apprentice still won't face me herself after ten years." And after a gesture of raising both arms the zombie beast are shredded to pieces and Stealer is forced to eat pavement face first flying off his mount and next to Musketeer's feet.

"Well that must have hurt." Musketeer cheerfully comments to Stealer.

Stealer then gets up and angrily flails at his foe. Still it really doesn't do much due to Stealer's fairly bulky environmental suit which limits his mobility. "Fool! I have waited for years to take your essence! The mightiest warrior shall feed me the mightiest essence and I shall have my revenge!"

"Don't you have any weapons?" Musketeer asks as she dodges her foe's pathetic excuse for an assault. Launching a flurry of ribbons into his face which strangle Stealer and bind him completely leaving him defenseless and swearing up a storm. "All too easy. I just hope the others manage to recover." Of course Musketeer is quickly tackled into the depths of the stadium by the rampaging Marble Slates who also trashes the entrance. And Troll also appears using another knife to cut Stealer free.

"Let's go, it's time to finish this. Stealer make sure her soul is stolen this time. Slates will assist you." Troll told Stealer who was none too happy at the orders but followed them anyways as the trio followed after Musketeer. The trio rush inside the stadium where they find the massive arena empty and oddly dark for some reason.

"That's odd, was this place always an indoor stadium?" Slates asks as the trio stumbles in the dark.

Stealer complains. "How the hell can this stadium have a roof? I mean its inside a space colony for crying out loud! Don't these places have controlled weather and stuff?"

Troll strokes his chin wondering what is going on as the trio go deeper into the stadium. With none of them really prepared for this situation they stumble and trip multiple times with Slates being notable since she is very big and heavy due to being made of floating sentient stone. And then the trio is shot apart by numerous gigantic guns and a very much alive and well Yellow Musketeer as the lights turn on in the stadium and Mami is high atop the stands readying another barrage of cannons at the assassins who are barely able to process the situation as they are shot down again without mercy. Stealer angrily summons an army of zombies only for them to get tied up by ribbons.

"What's happening?" Stealer screams out. Troll asks Stealer what is happening and he replies with. "Those guards whose essence I ate. They should know about the guildmaster but for some reason I cannot access them anymore."

Troll and Slates are shocked at hearing that and are even more shocked when a male voice says. "Interesting, would you like to tell me more about that?" And a floating figure wearing a longcoat and scarf appears right above the trio and at that time Red Card is rushing to get inside the stadium. The figure laughs as Slates launches his fists trying to punch him out of the sky only for the figure to disappear. Leaving only a disturbing echoing laugh.

"It's not fair Ichijin-san these three are my prey!" Musketeer complains to which Tsurugi merely remarks.

"Deal with it, the vault was compromised after all. Finish off these three and head back to the library immediately. Bookman needs your help." And then the voice and figure vanishes.

Mami complains "How annoying, you do know that you're just a scientist. Not even Kaname-san dared to order me around." Barely capable of hiding her frustrations. "But if Bookman needs my help. Then I suppose that its time I stop playing around. Maybe after this Banban-san will finally decide to face me instead of sending underlings to get me."

Troll fires numerous giant snakes which bare their fangs gleefully mocking Musketeer with. "Let's see you stop these!"

Stealer is upset yelling at Troll. "NO! That is my essence!" And tries to get his forces untied and then summon more only to realize that he has reached the limits of his magic. It doesn't help that the snakes are sliced into pieces by Musketeer who seems to have conjured up an estoc whose blade can extend to massive sizes.

"She has a sword now?! Bullshit! What other kinds of gear does that girl is capable of pulling out of her ass now?!" Troll yells in a fury.

Mami then appears in between the three of them. Retracts her helmet revealing her human face and pulls out a cup of black tea which she calmly drinks up while the ISF trio is trying to make sense of what is going on. "Well what are you waiting for?" Slates separates the pieces of her body managing to hit her only to find that the Mami they hit is a clone made of ribbons with bombs hidden in them which explode violently leading all three to ragdoll across the arena all while Red Card watches from a distance with awe and admiration.

"This is amazing! First that custom shuttle and now this! What kind of crazy summoning magic is the guildmaster using anyways?"

"Actually it's not summoning or anything of the sort." Tsurugi's voice rang out from the communicator. "Mami created all of that from mere ribbons. As a Puella Magi her magic manifested as ribbons born from her desire to survive. Of course just like the Incubators manipulated her into making a contract. She also chose to only save herself and let parents die in that car accident." Tsurugi said all that in a cheerful tone while Honoka was amazed at the revelation. "Still at first Mami was a terrible fighter a regular deer in the headlights who got smacked around by witches when she tried to use her ribbons as whips. And to top it off she saw a child get devoured by a witch. And I don't just mean eaten, I mean fused with the monster as the child was absorbed by the corrupted Puella Magi. So she taught herself how to create weapons from said ribbons. First it was simple muskets but over time and later with Nagisa's encouragement and support she managed to create Gatling guns, railguns, and then fully functioning ships, and swords."

"How?" Red Card asks in awe.

To which Tsurugi bluntly responds with. "How should I know? By all logic you shouldn't be able to turn ribbons into guns just like that. There is no formula behind such transmutation capabilities it is something that goes beyond summoning or alchemic transmutation. Not to mention that it bypasses all equivalent exchange." Tsurugi gets silent for this part. "Unless the soul gems corruption is the toll for the transmutation..."

At that time numerous pieces of Slates flew towards Red Card who is forced to react dodging the stones while Stealer tries to get the drop on her glowing neon green with his suit somehow growing teeth. Only to get blasted away by Mami's Tiro Finale. A huge blast shot by a huge cannon that plants him on the ground and ties him into the ground with ribbons while shooting down Slates parts with a musket in Gatling mode which is a standard Tiro which is modified to fire many rounds very quickly by being bigger and heavier to the point of needing to be held with both hands and having a different muzzle shaped like a Gatling gun. The shots are powerful enough to force the giant golem back into his original form and Troll is looking at the situation and trying to find a way to win only to get caught by large yellow ribbons.

Musketeer gains some distance and summons several hundred muskets in Gatling mode which she uses to finish off the trio. "Tiro Volley!" And fires the guns whose shots are suddenly absorbed by mysterious black holes and another set of portals remove the assassins from the equation. Red Card is only able to watch in envy at the situation. Something Tsurugi notices from faraway as he talks to the rookie.

"You know, you only seem weaker than them. But that's because you're just getting started. You are Madoka Kaname's child that last battle proved it without a doubt."

"What do you mean?" Red Card asked.

"Those two guards who you fought they were killed and their essence absorbed by Essence Stealer turning them into undead warriors who serve the one who absorbed them. It is a forbidden magic and the reason why Stealer was banished from his homeworld. That and the serial killings, guy was a murderous loon long before he got supernatural powers. Its just that after he gained the ability to eat souls he became nigh unkillable thru conventional means. Still you managed to absorb them and use their powers cutting off their connection to their master. This seems to be a variation on how Madoka could assimilate Puella Magi into the Law of Cycles since she basically absorbed the despair and grief of those who fell before they died sending them into the Law of Cycles."

"Are magical abilities hereditary?"

"No, it is very rare that magical abilities are something that is hereditary. Magical abilities are usually the manifestations of the inner self. Or in cases like Mami the manifestations of the wish she made to the incubators when she made her contract to become a Puella Magi. You inherited a variation of Madoka's power or so it seems because Madoka was that powerful as a magician." Honoka looked at the floor when Tsurugi said. "You shouldn't be so down, after all you were born to make history." The communication cut off as Mami came to check on Honoka unaware that troops have entered the stadium to find the portal user and that the ISF assassin trio was long gone with their snakes, zombies, and other random crap having disappeared as well due to lack of mana.

"Are you alright Mikage-chan?" Mami asks hugging Red Card and burying her head with her chest leading Honoka to quickly retract her helmet. Something that can be done with a mere thought or act of willpower. "I'm sure you were worried but as you can see everything is alright."

… **...**

 **Back at the vault**

Honoka, Mami, and now Tsurugi all untransformed have returned to the vault which has been trashed and the cards that were once there were all stolen with Bookman being left alone alongside several faceless guards. Tsurugi though had traded in the longcoat he wore back on earth for an equally massive and billowy labcoat designating his position as a scientist for the hunters guild.

"Bookman!" Mami rushes to hug the dog girl who is somewhat beat up.

Honoka is curious of the situation to which Tsurugi explains. "Let's just say that Bookman is something of a rebound for the guildmaster. After all she's always had a thing for younger girls. Nagisa was merely the one who lasted the longest."

Bookman broke off and began to explain the situation. "Mami-san it was Gekkou Tsukoyomi." The revelation shocked Honoka to the point of nearly yelling out that it was a lie. "It seems she was a mole all this time and that she had some portal creating powers. She managed to blindside the vice guildmaster, steal the cards, and disappear."

Mami became tense and muttered. "This is bad, we need to set up a perimeter and lock down the..." Then an alarm rang across the vault. "Oh not now..."

"This is an emergency scramble alert! The planet Kamai has been altered. All members of FAITH please head to Jedai hangar immediately." The announcer said thru the intercom.

Tsurugi could only smile with a bloodthirsty grimace. "Well, well, well, rookie. Looks like they are playing our song."

Honoka is dejected telling everyone. "Why do I have to get involved in this?"

Tsurugi countered with. "Relax if Gekkou really is a traitor she will show up somewhere out there. And if you help us out with gathering the rest of the cards I can get you some risque pictures of Mami from that time when she was Holy Mami."

Mami furiously yells to the scientist pinning him to the wall. "OH NO YOU DON'T! Those we're supposed to have all been destroyed!" Then both Bookman and Honoka's drivers ring and as they pick them up they are greeted to a picture of a younger Mami in her Holy Mami form all clad in white skin tight spandex with a giant red crown and shroud on her head. Spread out in a bed in a VERY compromising position, Bookman faints immediately and Honoka has a nosebleed eruption all while Mami is confused and Tsurugi laughs.

"So Honoka I suppose we have a deal?" The smug scientist asks the protagonist.

"After careful consideration I have decided that I will help you people in your quest. After all Mami-san's breasts..." Honoka begins drooling.

Bookman mentions. "I don't see why you're so embarrassed Mami-san I think you look kinda cute dressed up like this." Mami ends up dropping Tsurugi on his ass and begins to blush saying.

"I'll ask someone to send Mikage-san and Ichijin-san to the docks I need to go to the bathroom." Mami ends up covering her face and running into the wall.

… **...**

 **Somewhere in Planet Center**

Center is the IFS capital. Once upon a time it was the homeworld of the incubators but after their defeat they were driven of their homes and their homeland was torn down. It was decided by the victorious invaders that to ensure that the incubators would never threaten future generations that they would be systematically erased from history. The species would be hunted down, their world would be terraformed and reconstructed into the new capital of galactic society and their magic would be converted into something that could be used by the masses. Over time the incubators became little more than a story to scare children as the IFS hunted down every remnant of their existence even as the incubators grew more and more desperate to reclaim their lost empire.

The IFS assassin trio is facing off against Gekkou who is now wearing civilian clothes a small blue jacket and cargo shorts and purple shirt alongside purple hiking shoes that have all seen some fair wear and tear. Also Pantheon has shown herself representing the military. The entire group is meeting in a rooftop in the middle of the windy moonlit night.

"Well Miss Tsukoyomi we thank you for help if it weren't for you we would have never been able to obtain the items. Are you sure that the IFS is not capable of securing your services on a more permanent basis? Someone of your talents will surely go far in our organization." Pantheon remarked in a cold and condescending voice.

Gekkou looked away and replied with. "I refuse, I already have my own agenda."

Pantheon unamused at the reply her red eye began to glow in rage. "That won't do. Malicious Troll! Marble Slates! Essence Stealer! This fool has outlived her usefulness! Kill her!"

The trio rushed to strike at Gekkou when she suddenly disappeared leading the trio to smash into each other attack first causing a massive explosion that woke of the neighborhood and further infuriated the normally stoic secretary.

"How dare that brat humiliate me! It seems I will have to leave this to Grand Inquisitor Acura. It's a breach of protocol but that girl must not be allowed to side with the other factions." Pantheon remarked.

 **To be continued...**


End file.
